Online marketplaces are not just battling for customers but for sellers to go online. Merchants should read the small print.
Economic times reports that ahead of the big-bang sale across ecommerce platforms in the coming weeks, marketplaces are courting sellers through multiple schemes and incentives to reach their targets for on-boarding sellers by the year-end, and prepare them for possible hiccups while processing such large volumes of orders.
Online marketplaces are also trying to ensure that this Diwali is a happy one for merchants by giving up on commissions and reducing the pay cycle for sellers. "We have been receiving calls from different non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) which have tied up with marketplaces extending loans to us at market rates. Snapdeal has also reduced its payment cycle from over a 10-day period to over a 6-day period to ensure that we can rotate the money for procurement," said Sumanth Lingala, an electronics reseller who works with multiple marketplaces. Online marketplace ShopClues is not charging any commissions for new sellers on the portal.
