Flipkart, the online e-commerce marketplace that aims to grab the pole position in the market, is soon going to start selling refurbished smartphones on its portal.
As per the reports, the Bengaluru-based company could start selling such decided by Diwali. The company is doing so because of high rate of returns and no pricing advantage after GST.
Flipkart-certified refurbished models will be sold on the online marketplace as well as in offline retail stores. For this, discussions have been held with distributors and it is said that Flipkart will use its logistics arm Ekart for deliveries.
A person aware of the development, said,
Even though Flipkart has of late tightened return norms on mobile phones and only allows replacement in case of a defect, it is already saddled with lot of return inventory. There are also handsets with minor problems which are replaced. The company plans to get them checked and certified to look and work like new and sell them as Flipkart-certified refurbished handsets.
He further adds that there will be limited warranty as well on such products. Three categories of refurbished phones will be offered, priced at 60-75% of their original value.
The company will be selling devices from popular brands such as Lenovo, Motorola, Samsung’s ‘On Series,’ Panasonic, Micromax and Sony Xperia.
Flipkart seems to be following the steps of Amazon, which began offline distribution of smartphones earlier this year and has also started selling certified refurnished handsets. It currently sells Coolpad smartphones and plans to expand it to other models of brands such as Samsung and Motorola.