Flipkart aims to reduce returns further by 10-15% this year

E-commerce major Flipkart today said it aims to reduce returns on its platform by another 10-15 per cent as it engages more with its sellers to help the latter enhance their quality of products and increase sales.

The Bengaluru-based company has also reduced various charges like fixed fee, shipping fee and commissions for its sellers with effect from May 1.

"Through our latest initiative, Flipkart Utkarsh, we want to help sellers improve their business by focusing on improving the operations as well as quality of products being sold. Our team will visit various seller locations to help identify the possible gaps in the quality of the products that they sell on Flipkart," Flipkart Vice President and Head of Marketplace Anil Goteti told PTI.

He added that these gaps are adjudged based on certain guidelines.

"We are using artificial intelligence and machine learning to form these guidelines. It uses data from both sellers and customers and gives us an insight into areas that can be improved to reduce returns even further," he said.

The company has set up a team of about 25 members, including data scientists, who are working on this initiative.

Goteti said Flipkart has already undertaken a number of steps that have helped the company reduce return of products by 15-20 per cent in the last few quarters.

Talking about the reduction in various fees charged to sellers, Goteti said this was made possible by "a series of operational and business enhancements" that enabled the company to pass on the cost benefits to sellers.

He added that this reduction translates into savings of Rs 5-15 per unit for sellers, who may eventually pass this onto the customers.

Flipkart has reduced its fixed fee by 50 per cent, while shipping fee for non-Flipkart fulfilment has come down by at least 4-5 per cent in items weighing more than 500 gm. Besides, it has also reduced the commission fees.

The move comes ahead of Flipkart's sale (Big Shopping Days) that will be held from May 13-16, offering deals and discounts across categories like mobile phones, laptops, TVs, appliances, fashion, beauty, home and furniture among others.