Sangeetha Chengappa The Walmart deal has made sellers on Amazon and Flipkart are a harried lot.
“Walmart knows that selling online is not viable in India because of huge discounting and cost of logistics,” said a spokesperson from the All India Online Vendor’s Association, which has over 3,000 registered members.
“However, they will now be able to sell their products via Flipkart and receive preferential seller treatment, much like WS Retail, Retail Net and others, who receive product supplies from its wholesale arm, Flipkart India Pvt Ltd.
“This will kill sellers like us who are already struggling, as Flipkart continues to flout government regulations.”
On being contacted, the Retailers Association of India said: “It is RAI’s policy to not comment on any deals between individual companies.
“Having said that, we would like to affirm our support to both online and offline channels of retail as well as Indian and international retail.”
Meanwhile, the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM), an affiliate of the RSS, has asked the Centre to investigate the Walmart-Flipkart deal, claiming that it is “illegal, unethical and against the interest of the people.”
However, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram told BusinessLine that as both the companies are controlled by foreign investors, the Government of India has little to do with the deal.