Logistics limitations dampen Flipkart’s Agra sellers’ participation in sale

Flipkart’s woes appear to be mounting by the day, with sellers in Agra region facing problems. The Big Billion Days seem to be dragging its feet with technical and other problems. Flipkart’s Agra sellers have complained that their products have been taken down from the app/site. Vendors are complaining that Flipkart has cited ‘excess orders’ as the reason for ‘temporarily’ blocking the products.

Day one – heavy orders, day two onwards – sorry, not available

Sellers have said that on the first day of the Big Billion sale, they received more orders than usual. An Agra-based vendor said, “We were waiting for the Big Billion Days sale and have kept ourselves adequately stocked to meet the consumer demands. We got six times more order than what we usually get, on the first day of the event. But on the second day we were surprised to see our orders fell to zero. This is when we realised that something is wrong.”

Logistics seems to be playing the villain here, as Flipkart appears to be inadequately equipped to handle all the pickups and deliveries. One vendor claimed that he was unable to fulfil all his orders as the logistics vendor picked up only part of his orders. The logistics partner is said to have been instructed to pick up only part of the orders due to excess demand.

Agra based sellers were getting the following message, “To ensure customers receive their orders on time and have a great experience buying your products, we have to temporarily restrict the order flow for sellers in your area. We will be reverting to normal order flow by tomorrow morning or as soon as the situation eases up. We apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for the continued support.”

Sadly, the service continued to remain dormant as of Thursday mid-day.

Too much demand affecting the sale

The twist in the tale is that Flipkart is getting more orders than it can handle, the same problem it faced during the last Big Billion Days. This year’s sale has not been a bed of roses for the leading ecommerce company. Technical problems have caused the app to crash almost immediately after the sale began. Now sellers are also being limited due to logistics shortage.

According to Manish Maheshwari, VP and head of sellers’ ecosystem at Flipkart, the consumer demand is nearly 40% more than expected, and the limiting orders are a repercussion. He maintained that the company was following a scientific process to keep stakeholders happy.

It is doubtlessly a disappointment for sellers, who have invested a significant amount in their wares in preparation of the sale. Hopefully, Flipkart will be better equipped in the next round.