Flipkart claims to have made many sellers crorepatis; but this bunch in lurch after failing to sell enough

Despite a blockbuster six days long Big Billion Days, the flagship sale of Walmart-owned Flipkart, which concluded on October 21, it couldn't save the company from criticism from many sellers who cried foul for delays in pickups and putting their accounts on hold due to technical issues on the seller's panel.

"The hub choked, which delays delivery to customers. Such issues disrupt the whole logic of participating in a sale because then the volume drops drastically. As it is the return rate of products purchased during festive sales are high," a Delhi-NCR based seller who sells watches on Flipkart told Moneycontrol.

A Facebook page named Flipkart Sellers Club was also filled with messages from disgruntled sellers throughout the sale period. They claimed that Flipkart displayed out of stock signs for their products even as the products were still in store. Mostly the sellers were facing the issue of listings going inactive.

According to Mitul Italiya, one of the sellers on the social media page, this happened because of technical issues from Flipkart. However, instead of solving the issue, the company went ahead and put the seller on hold due to incorrect RTD mark.

Sellers also claim that when the load gets high, Flipkart puts standalone sellers on hold to give preference to its chosen set of sellers. Many of them said they were running into losses during the middle of the sale period because they had hired additional staff besides making investments in procuring additional inventory and ramping up infrastructure.

"I made an investment of Rs 50 lakh ahead of the sale season as suggested by the (Flipkart) account manager, but have managed to sell products worth Rs 4-5 lakh only," said Piyush Verma who sells his products on Flipkart.

Another seller who goes by the user name Dawson Jack on Facebook said he was receiving 700-800 orders on a daily basis, but during the sale period his listings were not deliverable and there was not even a single order. "Either make my listings visible or refund my loss of Rs 50,000 on a daily basis," he posted on the social media platform.

Shaikh Mahboob Alam said during normal days his company was doing better business than the sale period. "We hired staff for Big Billion Days for packing and they are sitting idle," he posted.

This happens even as the e-tailers including Flipkart and Amazon are estimated to have sold goods worth $4.8 billion during the festive sale, which went on for six days. Flipkart is reported to have sold 110 products every second during the sale period.

"As the marketplace platform witnessed a surge, with consumers across the country flocking to meet their shopping needs, we came across a minor glitch that may have impacted the order placement for a short period of time. Our teams and seller account management executives were notified immediately and the matter was resolved in no time. At Flipkart, it is our constant effort to democratise commerce as a marketplace and ensure that all seller partners have an equal opportunity to serve a pan-India consumer base of over 250 million people," a Flipkart spokesperson said responding to the queries on the issues faced by sellers.

While Flipkart began its six-day Big Billion Days on October 16, Amazon, for the first time, has announced a month-long Great Indian Festival from October 17.