Changes have come upon some FDI policy for e-commerce industry
Some commercial platforms are violating rules of making discounts and all that is about to change
Local retailers may get undue advantage over online retailers
Brick and mortar stores are about to get some major relieve from new changes promulgated by government in India. Now, online stores like Flipkart or Amazon may not be able to offer discounts or attractive deals.
The new changes that are coming on from government as regards FDI policy will make online businesses alter their business rules if they still want more customers.
These new changes were brought about by multiple complaints against online stores or platforms who violate norms to offer discounts through their group entities in logistics and wholesale.
Another area that could be affected apart from discounts is faster delivery of goods to customers. The new FDI policies may deem faster deliveries unfair and discriminatory. Customers are paying more to have goods delivered faster to them and now brick stores are claiming that it is unfair to business practices and it could be discriminatory. However, what this means is that prime members for example, on Amazon could be affected.
Another area which could also receive a bashing is the exclusive sales partnership. Now that these big players Amazon and Flipkart, including other players are being forced to follow new guidelines, it could be that big sales could become dwarfy sales in the future.
It is even said that Amazon or Flipkart have a stake or any control in any of the brands selling on their platforms, they would not be allowed to sell those products.
Accordingly, the new policy change is also meant to prevent brands that have direct backing of Flipkart or Amazon will not get special discounts and offers as they could be considered discriminatory. In the same vein, Amazon and Flipkart are no longer allowed to have free deliveries like they used to do before. Now, even if the online businesses have logistics companies, they cannot operate free of cost.
