E Commerce giant Flipkart has reportedly tied up with Chinese bulk sellers, through whom sellers on Flipkart’s platform can access and source products. With the move, the company is looking at China to source cheaper products to get price advantage.
According to the Times of India report, Flipkart is tapping China for categories such as electronics, apparel and household items. The company started the service about five-six months ago. For now, it is restricted to select sellers on its platform. It will implement the program on a larger scale in another few months if the current pilot succeeds.
“We have always focused on providing the most affordable rates to sellers and buyers.While we have already launched several seller-friendly services, the aim of the latest project is to make sure they can import large numbers of products at one go and at attractive prices,” Anil Goteti, head of marketplace at Flipkart, told TOI. However, he declined to give details of the Chinese sellers that Flipkart has partnered with.
Goteti was instrumental in Flipkart’s launch of the home and furniture category and he headed the mobiles category before taking the current role. The company has over 85,000 sellers on its platform.Goteti said the initial indications from the pilot project have been encouraging. Flipkart recently faced resistance from some sellers over its new seller policy that increased the commissions for the company from each transaction and which put the onus of paying for product returns on the seller.
At the same time, rival Amazon reduced its own commissions in some categories. It also recently announced an additional $3-billion investment.