Walmart-owned Flipkart has made it mandatory for all its sellers to use only Flipkart-branded packaging for delivering goods to customers. The e-commerce giant says it is environment-friendly and compliant with regulations in states like Maharashtra, that have banned single-use plastic.
The e-commerce giant has further threatened to penalise the sellers for non-compliance by suspending their accounts or not delivering their orders. Flipkart’s new policy comes, weeks ahead of its festive season sales, leaving the sellers dismayed.
Nishant Gupta, senior director at Flipkart, said: “We are a responsible company and want to be environment-friendly. We have no profit making in this as the sellers will deal with our packaging vendors.”
Earlier this month, in a mail sent to sellers, Flipkart had instructed all sellers on its platform to purchase packaging material from Flipkart.com by September 23, failing which it threatened to block their accounts temporarily.
Some online retailers have expressed their anguish on social media, blaming Flipkart for blocking their accounts on this count. All India Online Vendors Association has claimed this policy to be restrictive in nature and forced on vendors through account suspension.
A spokesperson for the All India Online Vendors Association, said, “Flipkart should allow sellers to use non-Flipkart branded packaging from the open market which complies with regulatory requirements.”
With the festive season sales merely weeks ahead, these restrictions could end up hurting the sellers.
On the other hand, last month, Flipkart had slashed commission on low price categories to attract sellers.