E-commerce major Flipkart has announced multiple measures, including waiver of various fees paid by sellers, to help SMBs during the ongoing second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The etailer has exempted the storage fees to curb the impact that any seller may have on their inventory that is fulfilled through Flipkart’s fulfilment centres, it said in a statement.
The company is also waiving the cancellation fee till May 31, 2021, for orders that may have been cancelled due to lockdowns in various states, it added.
“Through these testing times, it is our constant effort to support our seller partners who face immense operational challenges as a result of the pandemic. As a democratic marketplace, we want to ensure that our lakhs of seller partners are able to continue operations and keep the economic engine running,” Flipkart Senior Director and Head – Marketplace Jagjeet Harode told PTI.
Flipkart has also extended the window for the Seller Protection Fund (SPF) within which sellers have to claim SPF on returned products – from the regular 14 days to now 30 days. The company will further ease the policies and performance metrics for its sellers to ensure that their business growth is not impacted by state-led lockdowns.
In addition, the ecommerce major will also bear a 100 per cent premium of COVID insurance extended to all sellers, which covers hospitalisation and consultation between Rs 50,000 to Rs 3 lakhs.