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Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon or eBay? Straight up review of online marketplaces in India! Take your pick

In the age of eCommerce, it is almost criminal for a business to not sell online. While there is an option to start an independent online store for your business, it is also a good idea to give online marketplaces a try as well. If an online store can be compared to an independent retail store, a marketplace is more like a virtual mall. Marketplaces provide an established platform for sellers to sell their products online, but give lower margins in profit as compared to selling from an independent online store.

But which marketplace is the perfect match for your business? To help you decide, we’ve put together a review of all the major marketplaces in India based on the following parameters: Pricing, Shipping, Packaging, Payout Period and Marketplace Size.

Here is a consolidated list of the comparison of the different online marketplaces, which is followed by the detailed analysis of each of them.

You can read a complete review of the major marketplaces here.

 

1) Amazon

Whenever one thinks of an online marketplace to sell on, one of the first names that pop up is Amazon. The world’s largest online retailer has become a hot favourite with sellers since entering the Indian market in June 2013.

Here’s a breakdown of the services Amazon provides.

a) Pricing: The following is a summary of the pricing charged by Amazon for listing and selling products.

    • Monthly Subscription Fee: Rs 499
    • Closing Fee: Rs 10 charged on every sale that you make through them.
    • Referral Fee/Commission: Ranges between 5% and 15% per sale, depending on the product category.

You can check out the detailed pricing for Amazon here.

b) Shipping: A seller has the option of either shipping the product to customers himself, or use the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to ship products.

In case the sellers signs up for FBA, he is required to stock the products at the various Amazon Fulfillment Centers. Whenever an order is placed by the customer, Amazon packages and ships the product to the customer. The seller is charged extra for the following:

    • Storage Space: Rs 14.2 per cubic feet per month
    • Shipping: Rs 40 to Rs 45 per 500 grams
    • Packaging: Rs 10 to Rs 25 per unit
    • Delivery Service Fee: 1% of item value

You can read the detailed pricing card for the Fulfillment by Amazon program here.

c) Packaging: Packaging material is not provided by Amazon for sellers, unless they sign up for FBA. In that case, packaging is undertaken by Amazon themselves.

d) Payout Period: Amazon disburses payments to sellers’ bank accounts once every week. A seller is eligible to get paid for an order 7 days after it is confirmed as shipped.

e) Marketplace Size: Amazon has close to 2,500 sellers on its marketplace in close to 10 months of operation in India. The website receives almost 7 million unique visitors every month. It offers more than 450,000 products, in addition to 12 million books and 2 million e-books.

 

2) eBay

Another name synonymous with selling online is eBay. The online retail giants were founded in 1995 and took just 10 years to enter the Indian market, in 2005. One major difference between eBay and other marketplaces is that you have two options while pricing your products.

You can either list a fixed price for a product or choose an auction type price. You can select a minimum bid amount and also an end date for the auction. The highest bidder at the end of the auction gets to purchase the product.

a) Pricing: The pricing structure on eBay is a little more complicated and varies depending on a lot of factors. Here is a brief of the different charges that a seller incurs on eBay.

    • Subscription Fee: On eBay, you can choose to be a Non Shop Subscriber or a Subscriber (3 different plans). You avail benefits depending upon which plan you are subscribed to. Here are the rates for the different plans available on eBay.
        • Basic Store: Rs 499 per month

       

        • Featured Store: Rs 1999 per month

       

        • Premium Store: Rs 3999 per month

       

    • Insertion Fee: To list a product on your store, you are charged a listing fee. The first 100 products are free of the listing fees for every seller. After that, the rates charged are as follows.

The rates are shown for the different listing types. The first category is for the 1, 3, 5, 7 or 10 days of listing. The second is a 30 day listing option.

    • PaisaPay Fee: For every sale made through eBay, you will be charged 4.5% as the PaisaPay fees. In addition, on this PaisaPay fee (only interest amount, not the total sale value), 12.36% Service Tax is also applicable.
    • Final Value Fee: For every product that you sell, you will also be charged the Final Value Fees. It is a percentage of the total sale value. This varies between 1% and 7%, depending on the type of product you are selling.

You can check out the detailed pricing structure for selling on eBay here.

b) Shipping: eBay sellers too have the option to either ship the products themselves, or use eBay’s shipping solution ‘PowerShip’.

Unlike Amazon, eBay does not have any physical fulfillment center where a seller can stock the products. Once the seller packs the products himself, representatives from eBay’s logistics partners pick up the order from the seller. The package is then delivered to the customer.

Here are the shipping charges for eBay’s PowerShip.

You can check read more about PowerShip here.

c) Packaging: Just like Amazon, packaging material is not provided to the seller by eBay unless you sign up for PowerShip. Once you sign up for it, you are provided eBay branded packaging material to pack your orders.

d) Payout Period: Once the customer pays for the product, eBay holds the payment till the buyer confirms receipt of the order in good condition. Once the confirmation is done, eBay transfers the amount to the seller’s account. So, there is no definite payout period, but instead depends on the shipping time and customer confirmation. The entire process usually takes 7-10 days from the date of order.

e) Marketplace Size: There are more than 30,000 sellers active on the marketplace in India and has over 1.5 million live listings on its website at any given point of time. There are more than 2.1 million active users on eBay in India from more than 4,000 cities across the country.

 

3) Shopclues

A comparatively newer entry into the Indian eCommerce scenario, ShopClues has seen immense growth since its launch in 2012. The marketplace offers great deals for buyers and is popular among young shoppers online. The growth curve has risen steeply over the last 12 months and the company has also raised more than $15 million in funding till date.

a) Pricing: The pricing for ShopClues is very less complicated and is designed to attract merchants to sell on the marketplace. The pricing structure is performance based, which means that a seller only pays for a successful sale on ShopClues. Here is a breakdown of the charges a seller has to incur.

    • Subscription Fee: Nil. There is no subscription or listing fee charged by ShopClues.
    • Listing Fee: Nil. There is no fee for listing your products on ShopClues.
    • Selling Service Fee: For every successful sale, a commission is charged by ShopClues. The charges vary between 4% and 20%, depending on the type of product that you sell.

You can check out the detailed pricing structure for ShopClues here.

b) Shipping: For shipping orders that you receive on ShopClues, a merchant has to use Fulfillment by ShopClues. A merchant is not allowed to use his own logistics arrangement to ship products through ShopClues.

A merchant starts off as a ShopClues Velocity Basic (SCVB) member. Once he starts selling on ShopClues and meets the required eligibility criteria, he is given the option to upgrade to the ShopClues Velocity Premium (SCVP) plan. The shipping charges and services offered vary depending on which plan you are part of. The shipping charges are as follows:

    • ShopClues Velocity Basic: Shipping charges for every 500 grams is Rs 45.
    • ShopClues Velocity Premium: Shipping charges for every 500 grams is Rs 72. The additional charges are because of better services provided in packaging and shipping your orders.

c) Packaging: ShopClues provides packaging material to sellers to pack their products. In the SCVB plan, a seller has to pack the product and the courier representative picks the packed product. In case of SCVP, the seller just has to hand over the loose product and the entire packaging and shipping procedure is taken care of by ShopClues.

Packaging charges: For every item packed by ShopClues, a charge of Rs 3 to Rs 9 is levied on the seller. For most items, this charge is Rs 9.

d) Payout Period: The merchants are paid out every week on Friday. The payouts are made for all products sold a week prior to that Friday which have achieved the ‘Complete’ status.

e) Marketplace Size: Over 12,000 registered merchants are registered on the marketplace. More than 2,00,000 productsare listed for sale on ShopClues to over 42 million visitors every year.

 

4) Tradus

Tradus is the Ibibo group’s online marketplace venture in India which started in 2009. It has grown to be a big marketplace known for offering good discounts for customers and is growing steadily.

Here is a summary of what sellers can expect from selling on Tradus.

a) Pricing: Tradus’ pricing structure, like ShopClues, is based on performance only. You only pay when a product gets sold through them. Here is a brief of the prices a seller has to bear on Tradus.

    • Subscription Fee: Nil. There is no subscription or listing fee charged by Tradus.
    • Listing Fee: Nil. There is no fee for listing your products on Tradus.
    • Success Fee: The success fee is the commission charged by Tradus on every successful sale that you make through them. The charges vary from 2.5% to 28% depending on the products that you sell.

You can check out the detailed pricing structure for Tradus here.

b) Shipping: To ship a product through Tradus, a seller is required to use Tradus’ logistics partners. The shipping costs vary depending on the package size and weight. The detailed shipping rates are revealed only once a seller completes the registration process on the marketplace.

c) Packaging: Packaging the orders is the seller’s responsibility. To get Tradus branded packaging material, you can purchase the same from them here. Various types of packaging material are available. A pack of 100 pieces of low density polyethylene bags cost Rs 230. You can also use your own packaging material for shipping your products.

d) Payout Period: The amount received from a successful order is credited to the seller within 7 days of successful delivery of the product to the customer.

e) Marketplace Size: Though it still ranks relatively lower than its counterparts when it comes to revenue, Tradus has still managed to woo a strong base of sellers on its platform. Though the exact number is something that they do not disclose, there are thousands of transactions every day on the marketplace. The website attracts close to 700,000 page views every day.

 

5) Snapdeal

Snapdeal is a daily deals site turned online marketplace that started 4 years ago. Its huge rise in the last few years has seen it raise a tremendous amount of investment to fund its growth further. Here is a review of the services it provides to sellers for selling their products on their platform.

a) Pricing: Snapdeal is another marketplace that believes in a performance based pricing structure for its sellers. Here is what all you are charged for when selling at Snapdeal.

    • Subscription Fee: Nil. There is no subscription or listing fee charged by Snapdeal.
    • Listing Fee: Nil. There is no fee for listing your products on Snapdeal.
    • Successful Sale Commission: Though Snapdeal does not allow anyone to share the exact commission rates, they usually charge between 4% and 20% for every successful sale through them. The rates are similar to those offered by ShopClues.

b) Shipping: For a Snapdeal seller, it is mandatory to use the services of their logistics partners. The seller has to keep the order packed and the courier partners pick them up from the seller and deliver it to the customer.

    • Shipping Charges: The exact rates aren’t disclosed publicly, but they are approximately Rs 40 for every 0.5 Kg shipment. This cost is inclusive of all shipment charges.

Snapdeal also provides its sellers an innovative order fulfillment tool named SafeShip, which they can use to track and manage their orders with ease. Recently, they opened the SafeShip service for rival eCommerce companies to use as well. You can read more about SafeShip here.

c) Packaging: Packaging material is provided to the sellers by Snapdeal for an extra charge. The packaging material is charged at Rs 3 per order.

d) Payout Period: The seller is paid out for a successful order within 3 weeks of the dispatch date.

e) Marketplace Size: Snapdeal is one of the largest eCommerce players in India, with more than 20 million registered users. There are upwards of 4 million products up for sale from more than 20,000 sellers.

 

6) Flipkart

Flipkart is the success story of the Indian eCommerce industry. The 7 year old company is the largest eCommerce startup in India and has become a household name in the country.

It caters to a large number of sellers and buyers and offers wonderful services, which has seen its reputation skyrocket in the last few years. Here is how the marketplace ranks up in the different parameters.

a) Pricing: Flipkart is another marketplace that follows the performance based pricing structure. Here is a breakdown of the charges that you have to bear on Flipkart as a seller.

    • Subscription Fee: Nil. There is no subscription fee involved in selling your products on Flipkart.
    • Listing Fee: Nil. There is no fee required to list your products on Flipkart.
    • Commission: Flipkart also maintains confidentiality with regards to the exact commission rates that they charge on every product. The charges vary between 4% and 20% for every successful sale through them and many sellers get personalized rates depending on the quantity of sales they guarantee.

b) Shipping: For shipping, Flipkart uses its own logistics service eKart. It is mandatory for the sellers to use their services when shipping orders to customers. It is the seller’s responsibility to pack the order and keep it ready for the courier representatives, who collect it from the seller.

    • Shipping Charges: Once again, the exact rates aren’t disclosed by Flipkart, but the shipping rates are around Rs 35 per 0.5 Kg delivered through eKart.

c) Packaging: Flipkart usually does not provide packaging material to its sellers. But in certain rare cases, if a large quantity of orders is guaranteed by a seller, Flipkart does provide the material.

d) Payout Period: The payment cycle on Flipkart for sellers is different for the two different tiers of sellers. All new sellers start off as Tier-2 sellers. Once the seller completes one month on Flipkart with minimum 30 transactions, he is considered a Tier-1 seller. However, for this to happen, a settlement defect rate of less than 5% has to be maintained. If it shoots higher than 5%, the Tier-1 seller status is downgraded again to Tier-2.

The payout times for the different tiers are:

    • Tier-1 Seller: The payment cycle for all tier-1 sellers is Dispatch Date + 7 business days.
    • Tier-2 Seller: The payment cycle for all tier-2 sellers is Dispatch Date + 12 business days.

e) Marketplace Size: Flipkart has a relatively low number of sellers when compared to its competitors, with around 1,000 sellers active on the marketplace. Still, it was the first Indian eCommerce company to touch $1 billion in sales, earlier this year. On an average, more than 20 products are sold on Flipkart every minute.

So that is what every major marketplace has to offer sellers in India. Do you also sell on any marketplace? Or do you plan to start selling there soon? Do leave us your experiences, queries and reviews in the comments below!

PS: This post was written by Varun KR for the Zepo Blog. Both of us are part of team Zepo. And we thought it’d be an excellent resource for the amazing entrepreneurs out here. If any of you have any further questions, please drop in a comment below or you can reach Varun at varun[at]zepo.in 

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First Published on: Apr 17, 2014

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29 Comments

  1. Really comprehensive and easy on eyes. Kudos

  2. tanya,

    there was a comment on trhs fb page

    Saqib Khan I am not sure if an individual can sell products on Amazon? It has option for company only. Does anyone have any idea about this?

  3. Pretty good and informative analysis of all the prevalent platforms. Thanks. 

    P.S – The SafeShip link for Snapdeal is not provided in the article (clicking ‘here’ does not lead anywhere. No link attached to the word). 

  4. Hi Kunal,

    Glad that you liked the article. We’ve fixed the missing link. You can read more about Safeship here. 🙂

  5. Hi Saqib,

    To sell on Amazon, Snapdeal, Tradus and even Flipkart, you need to have your company registered. While registering as a seller, you need to provide company details and documents as part of the verification process.

  6. Really glad you liked it Sourav! 🙂

  7. Brilliant Analysis .

    If you could have also mentioned the ease of listing or  getting onboard , it would further add value to this article. 

    My own 2 pennies worth  after selling on almost all of these platform ( except tradus)

    Flipkart by far is the most ”sophisticated ‘  and process driven  marketplace. Right from providing a very professional team of Seller Supporters to the most efficient team of logistics , they score brownie points almost on all fronts, My only gripe with them is that they dont ensure that the seller is protected against incorrect return claims etc.   we have received returned products which were used for a week and then made unusable and stiull were compelled to accept the return

    Amazon is also great , with Amazon launching some value add service for sellers almost every 12 hours  . It sometimes is difficult to keep pace with daily  upgrades  of Amazon . Again their support staff is quite helpful for sellers and they have very strict quality parameters  eg 24 hours response to any customer query is mandatory which ultimately works well for the buyers .

    Ebay : everything standard here. ebay is an old veteran .  It has customized its offering as per the Indian setting for sellers as well as buyers. there is no gripe however no delight either.  A slight issue here is that the customer can give you negative rating and comment and there is absolutely nothing you can do as seller . ( except convince the seller to take it back) . The rating impacts your sellers rankings and ultimately sales get affected due to the above. 

     At the far end is snapdeal:  It is one marketplace where unfortunately I dont have much positive to speak.  There is no account manager , no onboarding team that helps in listing. There listing template changes almost every 3rd day and . The listing process itself is pain in the wrong place . However once listed , its quite ok there on.  Snapdeal  loses largely on account of unproffessional help and support team  , no personal assistance at any point. 

  8. Real informative. Thanks Team.

    Appreciate your efforts !!!

  9. Hi Tanya,

    Great post !! I as looking for exactly this information to decide upon whether to float an independent  online store / website of opt for marketplace. I have some queries :

    1) what are the benefits of floating an independent online store / website  over a marketplace since a marketplace provides an established customer base, sales and marketing support ? 

    2) According to the table Since marketplaces that provide free payment gateway charge a higher percentage what will be the charges for a payment gateway in case of an independent website ?

    3) how do we position the website in our business ?

    I request Asha, Abey, Mohul to kindly help me out on this.

  10. Great analysis about the online top shopping websites. Great work keep up the spirit.

  11. Nice In depth Analysis, Should be ‘Must Read’ post for any Start-up entrepreneurs venturing out into e-commerce

  12. Awesome Job.. Congratulations 

  13. We’re glad you liked the article, Ritesh! Thanks a lot for the appreciation. 🙂

  14. Thanks a lot for the kind words, Sachin. 🙂

  15. We’re stoked that you found the article informative, Jack! We’ll make it a point to keep everyone updated with all our articles here.

  16. Thanks a lot for liking it, Sai!

  17. Hi Rohit,

    Thanks for liking the article. We’re glad that you found it useful. I’ve gone through your questions and have tried to answer them here. Do have a look!

    1) There are individual benefits for starting an online store and for starting to sell on marketplaces. A marketplace, as you mentioned, provides an established customer base and support. But the biggest drawback is the commission charged by the marketplaces on every sale that you make. It can start from 5% and go upto 30%, depending on the marketplace and the product type. This may be in addition to subscription charges or listing fees.

    The major plus point about having an individual online store would be that it helps build your brand’s own identity on the web. Also, all the profits go into your pocket and you do not need to share any commission with anybody. You would have to market your website yourself, but if done right, it is totally worth it.

    Actually, for brands that are looking to sell online, the best strategy would be to utilize all channels. You can sell on marketplaces and on your own online store at the same time. This helps you get sales through an established channel while you can pick momentum for your own online store, which can certainly reap great rewards over a period of time.

    2) Marketplaces do not provide you a payment gateway as such. They have their own payment methods for end customers and they settle bills with you on a regular basis. To get a payment gateway for your own store, the charges can vary depending on which PG you choose. An initial set up fees is charged and also a TDR (commission charged on every transaction on your site) is set. With our eCommerce platform Zepo, you can get a payment gateway for free when you create your online store.

    3) Once you create an eCommerce website using Zepo’s platform or through any other channel, you can point it to your website. So, whenever someone opens your website, they will be greeted by your online store, from where they can shop from you.

    If you require any more information, do let me know. I’d be glad to help you out! 🙂

  18. Super article, well managed and briefly explains every thing. It will help me in growing my business too. 

  19. Very useful content – I can def use a couple of learning in my marketplace (traveltriangle.com)

    In case you are looking forward to write more and are looking for reader opinions – I would like to know how the various attributes listed above break or make the marketplaces. key attributes I would be interested in: subscription amount, payout period. For e.g. What are the pros or cons of keeping a monthly subscription amount. How has it helped amazon/ebay and at what cost.

    Thanks for sharing.

  20. Good stuff. Thanks for putting this together in a comprehensive way.

  21. This is a superb post.

    Great job 🙂

  22. Wonderful information. Thanks for putting this together.

  23. I recently came across a news regarding the eCommerce delivery in Kerala.  eCommerce sites stopped shipping products to Kerala. Do you have any insight on this? Is the ban still there? Do we have any resolution in case we want to ship to Kerala?

    Thanks!

  24. Thanks ,

    very helpful and easy to understand  

  25. Hi Tanya

    A nice and informative article for sure. But I wanted to sell products made at our factory on these sites. Registered on them as a company and got a mail that they would get in touch soon. Its been over 6 months and am still waiting (tried Flipkart, Snapdeal and Myntra).

    • If you are a one man/ one woman show…. get sole proprietorship done from some local agent and get cracking… your personal PAN will do in this case Someone wrote here on One Person Company as well……
    • With the proprietorship,,, u can now list at any marketplace or have your own site
    • Marketplace: Again if you are 1-2 persons and with not too much of technical expertise then just list at the marketplaces. For Home Décor Fabfurnish, Pepperfry & Craftsvilla are the best. … However there are thousands of products in a Single Sub-Sub Category hence u really need to have hundreds of very good products (which are also cheap) to make impactful sales here
    • Own Site: If you have fewer products, want lesser margins and have a budget of at least INR 50K-2L-5L (To cover site development, Internet Marketing etc…. bare minimum really is 2L)…. then make your own site…. also choose a Dev. Partner who can give u fantastic look and feel, fast loading times etc… check out their reference sites
    • We can help in the Own site process, we built http://www.artbugs.in … let us know Samir@perspective.net.in
  26. Great comparison, really difficult yo get this kind of information in one place. What do you think about niche marketplaces focusing only on one product category. 

    I am currently working to position one such site http://www.afewsomethings.com

  27. Hi Tanya,

    Your post was one of the most read articles on therodinhoods.wpengine.com and we are happy to have featured it again on the home page! Check out – https://www.therodinhoods.com and congrats!

  28. Thanks for sharing the insight. Can you help on how do the acounting is handled. I mean under what head the remitence is handle in books of account and what kind of documents you need to prepare and maintained.

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