Flipkart Partners With Nepalese Ecommerce Platform ‘Sastodeal’

Flipkart has inked a partnership agreement with Nepal-based e-commerce company ‘Sastodeal’ with the aim to explore cross border trade opportunities for its sellers. As per the terms of the agreement, Sastodeal will display a range of products from the Flipkart sellers who are operating across various categories like baby care and kids, audio devices, men’s clothing, women’s ethnic wear, sports & fitness, among others. This will help Indian sellers to increase their customer base in Nepal.

As per the e-commerce giant, this partnership will act as a boon for MSME sellers who are looking for new areas of growth as they are struggling to revive their businesses even during this coronavirus pandemic. Flipkart has 250 Mn registered customers who claim that they have 2 lakh sellers across India, out of which 50% have their origin from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

“The partnership with Sastodeal, a homegrown brand like ours, will not just open doors for a wider market reach to our sellers but also allow them to boost their business significantly. E-commerce business in Nepal has huge potential as more and more consumers take to online shopping. The trust a brand like Flipkart has amongst consumers along with the love of a local company like Sastodeal, makes the value proposition for consumers even more exciting,” said Jagjeet Harode, head of the marketplace at Flipkart. 

Private brands of Flipkart MarQ and SmartBuy will also have their listings done on Sastodeal platform that focuses mainly on electronics, home appliances, home décor as well as furnishings. In the first phase of the partnership, more than 5000 products across different categories will be listed on the Nepalese  E-commerce platform. Flipkart has been trying out a number of measures and relentlessly experimenting with diverse offerings in order to diversify its eCommerce business and attract more customers. This month Flipkart reported that it was trying to tie up with neighborhood stores with the prime motive to boost up its presence in the grocery segment and this was meant to give a counter-attack to Reliance’s JioMart.

In the month of July, Flipkart made an announcement that it was entering the hyperlocal delivery space in order to compete with Dunzo which is backed by Google and is the biggest player. Flipkart Quick services will help to leverage the capabilities and the supply chain management of Flipkart’s technology and will also help to deliver more than 2000 products across various other categories such as grocery, fresh, dairy, meat, mobiles, electronics accessories, stationery items, and home accessories — in the first phase. The platform will also be including neighborhood Kirana stores onto its network. Its currently functioning in Bengaluru and will slowly expand to the rest of the country in the coming months.

A report from June showed that Flipkart was planning to increase the commission that it charged from sellers, as the company experienced a demand for non-essentials after the lockdown. The increment in the commission across product categories will make sellers either to raise prices of their products or bear losses, in, either way, it is bringing profit for Flipkart in terms of its GMV or burn.

As per reports, commissions for products would be increased in areas such as the local shipping charges. 

A spokesperson for the All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA) had said, “The price hikes by Flipkart need to be rolled back, and they should instead reduce their fees for sellers to survive while giving the best benefits to consumers. With the revised fees, the sellers will be forced to increase prices by 5-7%, depending on category and selling price.”

A Flipkart spokesperson had told that it was working with lakhs of sellers so they could resume operations. “We regularly revise our commissions and shipping rate cards based on business metrics and this is a periodic exercise.”