Oct 29, 2016 07:34 PM
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Flipkart is now a marketplace. Just like Snapdeal. And, Infibeam. And, eBay.
But is everything same as before?
No. Quite a few things remain the same and a few others change when an ecommerce portal turns into a marketplace. You can see my earlier review of Flipkart, if you want to now why they were so good.
First, now Flipkart does not control the products that will be sold on the website. So, each product does not go through the selection process that it earlier did.
Second, when you buy something, you buy it from a seller. Not Flipkart. Now, Flipkart does have a strict policy when it comes to rating and regulating sellers and their activities. But, as I said, the seller is not Flipkart.
Third, when you need to return/replace something, you are negotiating with a seller. Flipkart decides the terms and conditions for returns and has a overriding refund clause too. But, there is another party involved in the whole transaction.
All said and done, has the transition stopped me from ordering from Flipkart? Nope. I have made three purchases from Flipkart after it became a marketplace. Two of them from WS Retail and one from Bizzna.
I am not sure of the exact status of WS Retail. Flipkart became a marketplace in April 2013. I traced my orders to as far back as April 2012 and noticed that the orders were still being fulfilled by WS Retail. Anyway, recently I ordered a few items from WS Retail.
The first one was a memory card for my phone and it was delivered within 26 hours. The second order was a watch and it took nearly 50 hours. The packaging in both the cases was the standard bubble rap packaging that we are all used to. The carton was of Flipkart too. So, unless you are looking closely, you won’t know the difference
Given that these are the original Flipkart guys and have delivered five orders of my on time, I can safely recommend them.
Bizzna on Flipkart Review
These guys are definitely post-marketplace. They have their own website too – how do I know? It said so on the packaging. The
Yes, it did not say Flipkart anywhere. And, now that all delivery boys carry bags with ekart(Flipkart’s own delivery service) written on it, there is no way to know this came from Flipkart. There is the bill, but you get the point. I ordered a watch from there. They took 5 days to deliver, more than double of what WS Retail took. I didn’t mind as I didn’t need the watch urgently. But when you are in a crunch situation and are flipping coins between other sites and Flipkart, it does not have the same edge anymore.
