Walmart's Flipkart to Cover Insurance for All Sellers in India and Waive Extra Charge

Walmart-owned Flipkart is exempting storage and cancellation fees for sellers on its marketplace and also providing them with insurance coverage as the top e-commerce platform in India looks to maintain cordial relationships with more than 300,000 sellers who are facing severe disruption amid the rapid rise in the spread of corona virus infections in the South Asian nation.

The firm lately stated that it is exempting storage fees to sellers who use the company’s fulfilment centres, and also waiving off the cancellation fees until the end of the month. (Several Indian states, as they did during the first wave of the virus, have imposed restrictions on sale and delivery of non-essential items.)

Flipkart will bear 100 percent premium of COVID 19 insurance to all sellers that transact on the platform, covering any hospitalization and consultation fees between 50,000 Indian rupees ($685) to 300,000 Indian rupees ($4095).

However, Amazon, Flipkart’s competitor in India, announced it was waiving 50 percent of the referral fee sellers are required to pay the e-commerce firm for the month, though not all sellers are qualified to avail this benefit. (The company said earlier this week that it was also postponing Prime Day in India and Canada due to the increasing cases of the infection).

Flipkart stated it was making it easier for sellers to access working capital from the firm without any incremental cost, though it did not specify the steps it had made.

It is also extending the window for the Seller Protection Fund to 30 days (from 14) to make claims on returned products. Flipkart states it will also ease its policies and performance metrics to ensure that they are not impacted by state-led lockdowns.

Flipkart, which was planning to go public this year, has partnered with Vriddhi, Walmart’s Supplier Development Program in India, to organize webinars for small businesses to share best practices to ensure safety of workforce and provide insights to stay afloat amid the crisis.

“Through these testing times it is our constant effort to support our seller partners who face immense operational challenges as a result of the pandemic. As a democratic marketplace, we want to ensure that our lakhs [hundreds of thousands] of seller partners are able to continue operations and keep the economic engine running,” stated Jagjeet Harode, senior director and head of Marketplace at Flipkart, in a statement.

He adds, “With them and their family’s financial and health safety in mind, we have rolled out these initiatives that will bring them the much-needed respite to keep their businesses active.”

India has over 400,00 daily infections cases a week, compared to other nations, as the world’s second-most populated nation, it has begun it battle against the second wave of the virus. A group of firms, start-ups, investors and people alike are uniting to help the nation face the war against the virus, which has severely impacted the healthcare services.