Amazon launches Multiple Easy Ship pick-ups

Amazon has launched a new feature for ‘Easy Ship’, which will let you schedule multiple pick-ups simultaneously by using the schedule pick-ups template, that has been integrated into Seller Central.

Managing the order

Download the unshipped orders report from seller central, by navigating through orders, order reports and finally clicking on the unshipped order section. Filter the ‘fulfilled by’ column, which you will find in the last column of the report and key in the value ‘Easy ship’.

For the unshipped orders make sure you print the invoices internally, which includes adding the order and/ or item details for picking the items. For picking the items a packing slip is not necessary. If required, generate and print the regulatory forms for the order.

Scheduling the Pick-up

• First you have to download the schedule pick up template from Seller Central. This can be achieved by scrolling to the orders panel, upload the order related files and then you can schedule the pick up by moving to the ‘prepare your schedule pick up file’ section.
• You can now fill out the order details in the same sequence in which the invoices were generated. If you do not to fill out the optional ‘Merchant Additional Identifier’ field, then the Order ID value will auto-populate this field on the label which will help you attach the correct invoice to the package.
• For the next phase, you will have to save the schedule pick-up template in a text format, utilising tab-separated values and upload it to the seller central panel.
• By clicking ‘View Processing Report’ in the actions column, you can review the status of your uploaded schedule pick-up file.
• Lastly you will have to download and print the shipping label by clicking the ‘Download Shipping Labels’ link in the Actions column, where all labels can be downloaded in a single PDF file.

Picking and Packing

The order ID/ unique identifier is easily readable on the shipping labels as it is placed on the right side of the label covered by a text box. The invoice has to be matched to the shipping label by checking the unique ID.

When packing the item, it is important to remember that the invoice and labels need to be stuck on the package. Finally hand over the package to the pick-up associate, along with the required regulatory forms.

Flipkart adds extra verification step in returns process to prevent fraud returns

Neither an online marketplace nor an online sellers like returns. But the Indian ecommerce ecosystem has been built up on the basis of easy (and most often free) returns policies to coax customers into buying without worry.

But off late fraud and dupe returns have troubled many sellers leading to significant losses. The recent case is of a 32-year old man duping ecommerce giant Flipkart of a whopping Rs 20 lakhs in 20 months!

Probably that has triggered the home-grown etailer to come up with an extra step in its returns process. In an email to sellers, Flipkart informs sellers about its new step to minimize instances of fraud with RTO or courier returns.

• For all products with selling price more than RS 5000, an ekart personnel in the Delivery Hub will open the secondary packaging of the returned product, to check that the primary packaging in intact.
• Once verified, ekart tape will be used to reseal the package.

This will (hopefully) help to avoid unpleasant returns instances like:

• Product with broken seal
• Wrong product
• Empty shipment

How can e-commerce sites be retailers for tax and not for FDI, asks High Court

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has observed that if the central and state governments were not treating e-commerce sites like Flipkart and Amazon as retailers for foreign direct investment (FDI), they cannot be treated as retailers for taxation purposes.

Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw was of the "prima facie" view that if governments were treating transactions by e-commerce sites as retail sale for tax purposes, then how can they say these firms are not retailers for receiving FDI.

"Prima facie, the Union of India/State Governments cannot, on the one hand, for the purpose of tax, treat such sales as retail and on the other hand, for the purposes of investment, not treat the same as retail sale," the court said.

The observation by the court came while hearing a plea alleging that e-commerce sites are violating FDIpolicy by retailing goods through Internet.

The court has also issued notices to the Centre, Delhi Government, RBI and the Enforcement Directorate, seeking their replies on the plea by an association of footwear makers and retailers which has contended that though FDI is prohibited in retail "but entities retailing goods through the Internet are not being restrained from accepting foreign investment".

It contended that Internet-based entities are in this way violating the FDI policy and thus, prejudice was being caused to them.

The association told the court that the e-commerce sites are being treated as retailers for the purpose of tax, but the Centre sought time to inform the judge about their stand. The court listed the matter for hearing on October 14.

Festival strategy: Flipkart, Snapdeal to focus on dominance without eroding margins

MUMBAI | HYDERABAD: For Flipkart and Snapdeal, their annual sales bonanzas this festival season will be about establishing their dominance, but they are unlikely to draw on margin-eroding discounts as their weapons of choice.

Instead, the country's leading electronic marketplaces are set to rely more on category-specific discounts, exclusive launches and cashback schemes as they strive for record sales this festive season, according to companies executives and industry experts ET spoke with. In high-margin but relatively low-demand categories such as home decor and kitchen, online retailers are still likely to offer heavy discounts to boost sales, experts said.

But in established segments such as electronics, it will be up to the manufacturers and sellers to decide how steep the discounts should be, a marked change in strategy for online marketplaces in response to the red flags being raised around their business models.

Snapdeal's preview Diwali sale on Monday served as an indicator: Some of the steepest discounts were in categories such as home and fashion; cashback schemes were on offer through its recently acquired digital payments platform Freecharge, and the home page had exclusive offers on specific brands. On average, discounts offered by online retailers have dropped to 15-20% this year from 25% in 2014, and is expected to fall further to 10-15% next year, India Infoline said in a recent report.


The moderation is expected to help online retailers wean consumers away from heavy discounts in their search for profitable unit economics.

"Etailers believe that there is a high degree of demand elasticity. We believe they will be wary of moderating the discounting aggressively," analysts Sandeep Muthangi and Nandhish Dalal said in the report, adding that Indian online marketplaces are expected to spend a total of $7.5 billion on discounts by 2020.


Srinivas Murthy, senior vice-president-marketing, at Snapdeal, said customers can expect discounts of up to 70% in the fashion, home and electronics categories. "We are developing a host of solutions for our 150,000 sellers to help them to pre-empt demand, basis on data analysis of consumer purchase behaviour and stock-up on their inventory," he said. Flipkart announced on Monday that it will hold its annual 'Big Billion Day' sale from October 13 to 17, with discounts available only on its mobile application.

According to multiple reports, India's etailing market is expected to grow to around $50 billion by 2020 from $4 billion at the end of 2014, as companies aggressively chase gross merchandise value, or the total price of all the goods sold on a platform.

This growth has attracted global investors such as DST Global and SoftBank, besides overseas etailing giants like China's Alibaba Group and US-based Amazon, to aggressively pump capital in India to acquire customers at any cost.



But increasingly investors have started asking companies to show a path to profitability, delaying new financing rounds for leading e-tailers like Flipkart and Snapdeal.

According to India Infoline, marketing costs for etailers in India are as high as 30% of the gross merchandise value, as compared to 2.2% for China's Alibaba and 5.5% for Argentina's MercadoLibre. "My hope and prediction is that this Diwali will be the last one where etailers offer heavy discounts," said Alok Goel, managing director at SAIF Partners and former CEO of online recharge player Freecharge.

Will Alibaba crash impact Indian e-commerce valuation?

NEW DELHI: When Alibaba listed on NYSE a year ago, it created history with the highest share sale value, making the Chinese e-commerce giant valued at around $230 billion. A year on, the company might create history again but this time, for the wrong reasons. Its scrip has nosedived close to 40% from its opening price and is now trading at almost $60 mark now. 

Fuelling the panic is a report by Barron's which predicts the stock price could crash by 50%. So, will Indian e-commerce bear the brunt of Alibaba's stock crash? 

It's a verity that a substantial chunk of the euphoric rise of investor confidence resulting into big fat cheques to Indian entrepreneurs was driven by Alibaba's success and the promises it held. Both investors and entrepreneurs in India have been vocal about being inspired from the Alibaba story and many are trying to copy its model. 

In fact, one if the biggest investors in India's consumer Internet story is Japanese giant SoftBank. Billionaire Masayoshi Son-led Softbank's 32% stake in Alibaba provided it with a war chest to aggressively strike deals, boosting valuations of Indian as well as broader Asian startup ecosystem. 

Going by last 18 months, Indian e-commerce has been all about blockbuster funding, sky soaring valuations but the plot is changing now in India. Investors are being cautious and big e-commerce companies are finding it strenuous to raise larger rounds of funds to meet working capital demands. The slowdown in Chinese stock exchange and Alibaba's continuous descent has been the trigger for Indian community. 

"The froth is not there any more. So, raising large rounds are not going to be easy at all in the present scenario.While Indian market has still got a lot of space to grow to come near the Chinese level but the flow of dollars is certainly not going to be as smooth as two years back," said Vijay Sekhar Sharma of Paytm.Alibaba, via its affiliate entity, is an investor in One97, which runs Paytm. 

Flipkart and Snapdeal are the latest examples of casualty of this fallout. 

Multiple sources have pointed out that Snapdeal was looking to raise close to a billion dollar at a valuation of $7 billion but could manage only $500 million at a valuation of $4.8 billion. Flipkart remained stable on its soaring valuation but it also had to be content for time being with about $700 million in fresh cash. It was also eyeing more cash. 


"If not profit, companies are continuously being asked to arrest losses. The screening before writing a cheque to a company , regardless of scale, has become more meticulous. Accounting policies too are being screened," said a domestic investor who has invested in a large e-commerce company. 

SoftBank shares are currently trading at two-year lows, tracking declining value of its investments in Alibaba, Yahoo Japan and Sprint Corp. SoftBank is sitting on $16 billion of cash but may still limit writing big cheques to startups for multiple reasons: It may be required to inject more capital into the still struggling US telco Sprint and its free cash flow from Japanese telecom market could face some squeeze. 

However, despite the initial hints of panic the big bang investment headlines may continue for some time, perhaps at a slower pace, but valuations will continue to taper off coupled with tinge of negativity surrounding the market. What would be worth seeing is whether the Alibaba stock crash will cloud the Indian e-commerce story.