Flipkart revises its 30-day return policy, narrows window to 10 days

Flipkart, India's largest ecommerce giant, has changed its return policy by reducing the original 30-day return time to just 10 days now, in case of most top-selling products. It basically implies that a customer needs to send back a product bought on the Flipkart website within 10 days in order to get a refund. According to a report published in Economic Times, Flipkart has also told its sellers that they will have to pay higher commissions from June 20.

The move came soon after Flipkart's rival, Amazon, also increased seller commissions. In the past, the no-questions-asked return policy followed by ecommerce companies has been a nightmare for the sellers as they had to bear the cost of return shipping. The shortened return period is likely to be a boon for the sellers on the platform, and might also attract more to sell on its platform.

Most sellers have said that the revised return policy will affect the prices at which a customer buys products from Flipkart. The prices could up by about 9% ad will apply on electronics, books and mobile phones, which form the bulk of the sales on Flipkart. However, the 30-day return policy will remain only for clothing, footwear, watches and eyewear, jewellery and fashion accessories, and large appliances.

One Flipkart spokesperson who spoke to ET said that "The revised structure across shipping, commission and returns will enable sellers to have predictability and better manage their online business. The standardisation has been designed to encourage sellers who offer superior customer experience, and is thus a win-win for both our customers as well as our customer oriented sellers."

The Binny Bansal-led company is also dropping the Zero+ Commission Policy. Under this policy, Flipkart allowed a certain group of sellers to advertise on its platform, for a fee, and in return, had stopped charging commission from them. The move also barred sellers from charging any shipping cost from customers.

Apparently, the sellers on the platform are concerned about the frequent and sudden changes in policy. "This makes reconciliation difficult as it is not easy to keep track of so many transactions," a seller on Flipkart told ET.