On track to have over 420,000 sellers, MSMEs by Dec 2021: Flipkart

Walmart-owned Flipkart on Thursday said it has onboarded around 75,000 sellers on its platform in the past few months, and is on track to have over 420,000 sellers and MSMEs by the end of this year

Walmart-owned Flipkart on Thursday said it has onboarded around 75,000 sellers on its platform in the past few months, and is on track to have over 4.2 lakh sellers and MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) by the end of this year.

Currently, the Flipkart marketplace supports digital commerce for 3.75 lakh sellers and is steadily working towards taking this number to 4.2 lakh sellers on its platform by the year-end, a statement said.

Since the pandemic, the Flipkart marketplace has seen an encouraging response from MSMEs who want to take their business online with e-commerce, it added.

"The new sellers and MSME base predominantly come from tier-II and -III markets such as Agra, Indore, Jaipur, Panipat, Rajkot, Surat, and many others. The Flipkart marketplace platform has also witnessed the rise in categories such as general merchandise, home and kitchen, and personal care," it said.

Flipkart Group Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Rajneesh Kumar said the value of digital commerce and the potential it has to enable small businesses to grow rapidly is well-known and accepted.

It is encouraging to see that small businesses continue to put their trust in the Flipkart e-commerce marketplace and are seeing accelerated growth, he added.

"This festive season, MSMEs and seller ecosystems across the country have come forth even more resilient and rejuvenated and we are excited to support their learning, financial, operational and business needs as they offer a wide selection of products on our platform," he said.

Flipkart's continuous effort is to ensure that every small business, MSME, women-entrepreneur, artisan, weaver or handicraft marker is an active participant in the upcoming festive season, Kumar said.

He added that the partnership with kiranas is also growing rapidly as part of the company's last-mile delivery programme.

To support the business continuity and growth of these sellers during the festive season, Flipkart has enabled a next-day payment programme that allows sellers to receive their order payments within a day. It also offers sellers customised offerings from lenders based on projected growth.