Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Walmart-owned Flipkart on Thursday said it has recorded 220 per cent growth this year in onboarding new sellers on its marketplace vis-a-vis last year. The company said nearly 11 lakh Flipkart and Shopsy (Flipkart’s social commerce platform) sellers will participate in the upcoming festive season. “The majority of new sellers onboarded contribute to products which fall under the lifestyle and books, general merchandise and household (BGMH) category,” the company said in a statement. Flipkart recently announced the 9th edition of its flagship sale event The Big Billion Days (TBBD) starting from September 23 till September 30, 2022.
Earlier this year, Flipkart had announced a number of policy changes related to payments, working capital, onboarding and listing, low return cost for performing sellers, deals with Cleartrip integration for travel-related requirements, etc, the company added.
“Our seller partners, of which a large proportion are MSMEs and small businesses, play a crucial role in bringing valuable, unique and affordable offerings to Indian consumers through Flipkart’s marketplace platform. Our constant endeavour is to help these businesses, which are the backbone of the Indian economy, leverage the power of e-commerce to expand their reach and serve the pan-India consumer base, gain access to best-in-class solutions and drive their growth,” said Rajneesh Kumar, Chief Corporate Officer, Flipkart Group.
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In order to strengthen its kirana delivery programme ahead of the festive season, Flipkart said it onboarded 1 lakh additional kiranas in the last year. Its overall kirana count stood at 2 lakh, largely from West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu. The focus on kirana gained significance for Flipkart as more than 30 per cent of 100 million deliveries a month have been through kiranas across the country.
Meanwhile, Amazon has also announced its Great Indian Festival sale starting September 23. Amazon said lakhs of small medium businesses will showcase their products including products from sellers under various programmes such as Amazon Launchpad, Amazon Saheli, Amazon Karigar, as well as Indian and global brands across categories. The company recently announced offering a 50 per cent waiver on selling fees for all new sellers across all categories registering on Amazon.in between August 28 to October 26 and launching within 90 days from the date of registration.