Flipkart will incentivise sellers to offer additional discounts to retain customers
Under the new initiative, Flipkart is encouraging its sellers to offer additional discounts. In return, they will receive various kinds of non-cash credits.
Flipkart, India’s leading ecommerce marketplace, owned by global retailer Walmart, has introduced a new incentive scheme for its sellers in order to increase its number of loyal customers.
Under the new initiative, Flipkart is encouraging its sellers to provide additional discounts for Flipkart Plus customers – the company's loyalty programme. In return, the sellers or vendors will receive various non-cash credits, according to reports.
Vendors who choose to offer an additional discount of five percent will receive around 50 percent of discount value back as non-cash credit note. This incentive programme also comes with certain benchmarks that sellers have to meet.
This incentive programme comes at a time when the government has placed numerous restrictions on ecommerce companies on offering discounts on third-party products.
In fact, the government had also asked online marketplaces to curb predatory pricing after protests from small sellers.
This has brought in significant challenges for ecommerce players as they have had to rework on their business models, potentially impacting the growth roadmap. The government also warned the ecommerce industry against trying to bypass the existing regulations.
However, industry sources said that they are in constant dialogue with the government to rework these policies.
Subscription service Flipkart Plus was launched in August 2018, to reward customers by giving them access to exclusive deals and free one-day deliveries.
Last month, the company also announced the launch of its multi-brand rewards ecosystem, SuperCoins. This also works as a rewards ecosystem for not only shopping on Flipkart, but also across over 100 partner brands including Zomato, OYO, UrbanClap, PhonePe and MakeMyTrip.
In an official statement, the company had then said, “Flipkart Plus members will now experience a better rewards store with SuperCoins.”
(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)
