E-commerce in India is growing at rapid pace pace and flipkart is the growing platform in India. E-commerce is to be expected to have growth of up to $200 billion by 2026, against $36.5 billion in 2017. More people will start to buy online then offline. Just imagine having millions of products at your fingertip, who would not not want that. In this guide, How to Sell On Flipkart , we look at different topics that a new seller must know before starting his flipkart journey.

• Flipkart Statistics
• How to Sell On Flipkart
• Documents Required to Sell on Flipkart
• What is Flipkart Seller Badge or Tiering
• Flipkart Image Guidelines
• How to Create Flipkart Listing
• How to Ship Flipkart Orders
• List of Flipkart Fees
• How to Check Flipkart Order Settlement Amount
• How to Check Flipkart Returns
• How to File SPF Claim on Flipkart
• Closing Thoughts

Flipkart Statistics

Flipkart is one of the biggest e-commerce giant in India. It had 100,000 sellers on his platform as of 2018. It’s GMV is targeted at $17.6 billion by 2021. There are over 1 Billion product on Flipkart. It handle monthly 8 million shipments. This numbers are enough to tell you the scale at which flipkart is working right now.

How To Sell On Flipkart

Step 1: Go to https://seller.flipkart.com/

Enter your 10 digit mobile number and click “Register Now”

Step 2: Enter Email and OTP details

File form with your details like email address, OTP, Your Name and new password. After filling the form click on “Sign up” button

Step 3: Enter your pickup pincode and click verify.

If your pincode is serviceable by flipkart then you will have to enter the pickup address details. This is the address where flipkart pickup boy will come for picking orders scheduled by you.

Step 5: Enter business details.

Once you have entered your GST number. You need to provide your business details like your company name, PNA Number, Business Type like Proprietor, Private Limited, etc

You also need to enter you business address as per the GST certificate.Next upload your signature by signing on a blank paper and uploading the photo of the signature.

Step 6: Upload ID Proof

You can upload any of the below address proof:

• Mobile Bill
• Rashan Card
• Aadhar Card
• Passport
• Electricity Bill

Step 7: Enter bank details

Next you need to enter your Bank details, in which you want to receive the payment. Flipkart accepts saving account or current account details. You need to upload Cancelled Cheque as well.

Step 8: Verify Penny Transfer

Flipkart will transfer an Amount from Rs.1 to Rs. 5 in your bank account for verification purpose. After the transfer you will receive and email link where you can click and enter the transferred amount to complete the Bank verification.

In your dashboard you will be able to see which all the steps are completed and which one are remaining.

After all the steps are completed you can start creating product listing for product that you want to sell on Flipkart.

Below we are listing in details about the documents that you will need to sell on Flipkart.

Documents Required to Sell on Flipkart

Flipkart have very minimal required documents. You need to upload below documents on Flipkart to complete your registeration.

If you are an individual having a Proprietorship business or a Private Limited company. The documents will almost remain same, like Company Proof, GST Registeration, Identity documents, Address proof.

1. GST Registration Certificate

GST registeration is a free for everyone. There is no fees to be given to India Government. But since gst registeration requires that you have some knowledge about what kind of company do you want and what name you want to give your company. It is always better to take help of experts loke your CA.

CA can do the registration for as minimum as ₹2,000. It is a vetter option as if you do any mistake then you would an external help anyways. Also, since GST filing is a requird for every business in India who have registered for GST.

GST filing would require expert help from your CA. If you literally don’t know anything about accounts or company formation it is better to consult a CA.

GST registration normally takes 4-7 days. After that you can upload the GST certificate kn Flipkart portal.

2. Identity Documents

In india, Aadhar Card is the new identity card. You just need to upload your Aadhar card soft copy on flipkart. You can even upload your passport as an identity proof.

3. Address Proof

Aadhar card can also be added as your address proof as well. You can upload you passport copy as well. Remember to take the xerox of the front and back of Aadhar or passport in a single page.

4. Bank Account

If you make a sale, you need some way to receive the money. You can take a xerox copy of your bank account as a proof.

There is no requirement for a Current Bank account, you can have a saving account as well to start selling on Flipkart.

Flipkart Seller Badge

In this section we will talk about flipkart seller badge or Tiering. Flipkart have three different seller tiering Bronze, Silver and Gold.

All new sellers in flipkart are by default Bronze sellers. You need to achieve certain benchmarks to become a Silver or Gold seller on flipkart.

To Become a Silver Seller Below are the Benchmarks:

• Seller Cancellation should be <= 0.50 %
• Dispatch Breaches should be <= 1.40%
• Sales Or Units: You sales should be more than 20 Lakhs every quarter OR Your Units should be more then 2500 every quarter
• Regional Utilization: There is no Regional Utilization benchmark. Regional Utilization means how many % of your orders are coming from your Region like Maharashtra is a region for Mumbai sellers
• Product Rating: Depending on your product category benchmarks are decided. You must adhere to the your category benchmarks

To Become a Gold Seller Below are the Benchmarks:

• Seller Cancellation should be <= 0.15 %
• Dispatch Breaches should be <= 1.00%
• Sales Or Units: You sales should be more than 40 Lakhs every quarter OR Your Units should be more then 2500 every quarter
• Regional Utilization: should he greater then 20%
• Product Rating: Depending on your product category benchmarks are decided. You must adhere to the your category benchmarks

Each level has different benefits associated with it.

Below is the list of benefits for Silver tier of sellers:

• Forward Shipping Fee Discount: 10% Discount on forward shipping.
• Payment Cycle: from 15 Days to 10 Days
• Increased Product Visibility: As compared to Bronze seller, your products will get much better visibility, which will ultimately increase your sales
• High Priority Seller Support: You will get better support from flipkart as compared to bronze seller.

Below is the list of benefits for Gold tier of sellers:

• Forward Shipping Fee Discount: 20% Discount on forward shipping.
• Payment Cycle: from 15 Days to 7 Days
• Increased Product Visibility: As compared to Silver seller, your products will get much better visibility, which will ultimately increase your sales
• High Priority Seller Support: You will get better support from flipkart as compared to bronze seller.
• Exclusive Flipkart Events: Flipkart hosts multiple events every year for Gold seller. You will be heared by directly top management of flipkart.

Flipkart Image Guidelines

Flipkart is very strict about the images you upload. Unlike Amazon, Flipkart needs to approve your listing manually before it can be shown to buyers. While in Amazon there is no manual process for listing validation.

Below are some of the basic guidelines which are enough for going through the manual validation process of Flipkart.

• Watermark/Logo/Text: Your primary image in Flipkart should not have any watermark or your logo or brand name. You secondary images can have watermark or logo or your brand name on them.
• White Background: Your primary image should only have white background. You secondary images can have any type of background.
• Image Sizes: Flipkart require images of minimum 500px X 500 px. But our suggestion is that you make all you images minimum of 1000px X 1000px. This makes the images zoomable on both Amazon and Flipkart.

How to Create Flipkart Listing

Flipkart have very strict guidelines around their listing process. Depending on the category you are selling in, you can have different fields that you need to fill to create your listing.

Though there some simple steps to create your first flipkart listing.

Step 1: login to Your Flipkart Seller Hub Account

Go to https://seller.flipkart.com and login to your flipkart seller hub account.

Step 2: Go to Listing

Click on “My Listing” Under “Listing” menu.

Now click on “Add New Listing”

Step 3: Create Single Listing

If you just want to create single listing then click on “Add Single Listing”.

Next select your product category. Category menu on Flipkart is very complex but at the same time very robust.

Search for your product, say for us we want to sell under watches, then enter “watch” And weight for flipkart to show suggestions.

Select category which make sense for your product. Flipkart team will further do the validation of the category and add it into relevant category.

Once you select the category you will be able to see the picture of a dummy product. If it looks like the one you are creating your listing for then click on “Select Brand”.

We will talk about how to apply for brand approval or exemption for unregistered brand in Flipkart.

Here you will have to enter the brand name and apply for brand approval. If you are a reseller of a registered brand on Flipkart then you will have to apply for brand approval. Say i want to sell Fast Track watches then i will enter “Fast Track” brand name and hit “Check Brand”. Flipkart will ask me to “Apply for Brand Approval”.

Once you click on the “Apply for Brand Approval”, you will have to give either a Brand Authorization letter or Invoices from Brand or re-sellers of that brand. Flipkart may ask for both Brand Authorization and Invoices as well.

Now once you apply for the brand and it is approved. You need to Again repeat the above steps. If your brand is Approved then you will be able to see a “Create New Listing” button instead of “Apply for Brand Approval”

Click on “Create New Listing” and Fill all the attributes.

• Upload Product Image (At least one image with white background) is mandatory
• Enter price, SKU ID, stock quantity and Shipping information
• Enter Product Description and other optional details for the listing
• Enter Addition Description details.

Though some of the fields are not mandatory, it is always better to fill all the attributes.

Once you fill all the listing details click on “Send To QC”. Now this listing will go to flipkart associates who will validate it and if found according to guidelines, it will be approved.

If your listing is not approved. It will show as “QC Failed”, under My Listing > Add New Listing > Single Listing

Edit your listing according to Flipkart guideline and it will be approved. It is very tough to create listing on Flipkart, but once you know how everything works, it will be very easy going forward.

Step 4: Create Bulk Listing

Some categories in flipkart asks for too many attributes like 30-100, to create listing which can be very confusing for new sellers. Rather you can create the listing through “Add a Single Listing” option, which asks same attributes in UI.

If you are totally new to Flipkart listing creation, it is better to skip this section and follow step 3 as it will be very confusing for new sellers.

Once you have enough experience you can create multiple listings using Bulk Listing option.

Once you are on “Add Listing” page, click on “Add Bulk Listing”

Next select the product category and apply for brand approval if not already approved. The steps are same as what we saw in single listing. If your brand is approved. Then you will see below screen. Click on “Create products through Catalog Template”.

Click on “Download Template” to download the bulk listing template. Depending on the category the attributes in bulk listing will differ.

Open the sheet in Microsoft Excel program on windows. You will be presented with list of attributes that you need to fill in. Read all the attributes and fill in the one which are required.

Once the sheet is filled upload it on flipkart by clicking on “Upload File” button.

Wait for QC team to check the listing if the QC is failed for any product you will be allowed to download the reason for failure. Once you submit the listings for QC below screen will be shown.

Correct the error and re-upload the bulk listing file again.

Remember that you will not receive any emails if QC is failed or passed. You need to check the listing status next day.

If all your records are QC passed then you will have to click on Next to go to next step. In this step you have to update the prices, SKU ID, MRP, Tax and other details to make the listings live.

Once all the information is uploaded, it will be taken for further approval and once approved. You will be able to see all your listings under Listing > My Listings Tab.

How to Ship Flipkart Orders

Flipkart have Ekart as it’s primary courier partner. Ekart is company owned by Flipkart. Based on the location and speed of delivery flipkart may select the courier partner for each orders.

Say you received 10 orders today out of which 2 orders will be picked by Bluedart and rest will be picked by Ekart. Keep order seperate so that correct orders are picked up by respective carrier.

There are different programs run by Flipkart. Each method have different requirements for shipping.

1. Flipkart Self Ship

If you are enrolled in self ship program then you will be required to ship the products using your choice of courier company. The advantage here is that if you tie up with a courier company you can get better shipping rates as compared to flipkart.

Pros:

• Choose your own courier
• Choose your own packaging
• Save on expensive flipkart courier

Cons:

• You need to handover the package to courier by visiting them
• You will have to track package status and update the customer in case of any issues
• You will have to provide customer service
• You will not be granted any claims related to package damage by courier company
• Low sales compared to other programs

2. Flipkart Standard Fulfilment (Flipkart Easy Ship)

This is the program in which you will be enrolled by default. If you receive any orders on flipkart they will be delivered through flipkart only. Flipkart will be responsible for arranging and delivering the courier.

Pros:

• No need to keep track of courier status
• Parcel will be picked up by the courier person from your pickup location
• Flipkart will provide customer service
• Flipkart will provide claims in case of package damage or losses or different product returned
• You products will be in your own warehouse

Cons:

• You will have to pack products in Flipkart Packaging only
• Low visibility as compared to Flipkart Fulfilled products
• Staff required for packing and Scheduling orders on daily basis

3. Fulfiled By Flipkart (FBF)

In this program you will be required to store your products in flipkart fulfillment centers. Flipkart will be responsible for picking, packing and delivering your products to the customer.

Pros:

• Increased visibility
• No daily order packing and scheduling of orders
• Auto reimbursement for product damage, lost or different product returned.
• Limited warehouse requirements

Cons:

• Monthly fees for each registered fulfilment center
• Monthly storage fees will be applied to each product
• Cost of sending large quantities to warehouse
• Appointment issues at fulfilment center during pick seasons like Diwali

List of Flipkart Fees

Flipkart is a 3rd party marketplace where multiple sellers can sell their product to flipkart customers. Remember the customer do not come to buy your product, they buy from Flipkart.

This concept is similar to Dmart. People comes to buy from Dmart, they do.not come to buy your brand (exception if you are big brand company in india).

Fees Charged By Flipkart

Due to its marketplace model. Flipkart charges certain fres to the seller who sell their products in flipkart. There are multiple fees charged by flipkart based kn the program i which you are enrolled.

We are going to learn about some of the fees that are charged to every Flipkart seller. You may be charged extra fees depending on which program you are enrolled in.

Flipkart Commission

Flipkart charges a percent of commission on selling price depending on the product category. It can range from 2% to 30% depending category.

Flipkart also revises commission depending on market condition and competition. Whenever there is any change in the fees you will be notified about the same through your registered email id.

We also notify our subscribers whenever there is a change in any important flipkart policies or rate card.

Flipkart Shipping Fees

Every order that you get on flipkart need to be shipped through courier to your customers address. For which you would need a shipping provider. If you are a self ship seller on flipkart then you can use your own courier service.

For every other seller who is not enrolled in self ship will have to ship most of the orders through flipkart logistic arm Ekart.

Shipping is charged based on the actual weight or volumetric weight of the parcel whichever is higher.

Depending upon the type of seller flipkart charges Shipping to you.

Shipping Charges for Bronze seller.

Shipping Charges for Silver Seller

Shipping Charges for Gold Seller

Pick And Pack Fees

Pick and Pack is only charged in Fulfiled By Flipkart program. Flipkart charges ₹5 as Pick fees and ₹5 as Pack fees.

Collection Fees

Collection fees is collected as a percent of selling price. Typically it is 2.5% for prepaid and COD orders.

Fixed Closing Fees

Fixed closing fees vary on multiple parameters like product price, category and fulfilment program.

How To Check Flipkart Fees For a Category or Product

Follow below steps to check all the fees charged by Flipkart for a product or category.

Step 1: login to Flipkart and go to Payments > Transaction

Step 2: Click on Flipkart Rate Card om the right side

Step 3: Select Standard Fulfilment and Enter Product Category.

For example we enter watch

Step 4: You can enter any product FSN as well to check its fees

Step 5: Click on Search

Below are the fees for category Watch.It list Flipkart Commission, Flipkart Shipping Fees, Flipkart Collection Fees, Fixed Fees, etc

How to Check Flipkart Order Settlement Amount

For every order you can check how much amount have flipkart credited into your account. The amount is called order settlement amount.

Let’s see how to check Flipkart Order Settlement Amount:

Step 1: Login to Flipkart Seller Hub

Step 2: Go to Payments > Transactions and Enter Your Order ID which is delivered successfully.

Step 3: Hit Search and you will be able to see you unsettled amount.

Step 4: Click on the arrow on right of Unsettled amount to see the details of the amount.

Your settlement amount includes all the fees and GST deducted by Flipkart on the selling price. A negative amount indicates that flipkart will deduct that amount from your payments.

Click on “View Transaction History” to see all the commission fees deducted by Flipkart.

This will give you a clear and exact idea about how much fees are charged by Flipkart for each order and will help you in reconciliation.

How to Check Flipkart Returns

Return are part of online business. In flipkart returns are very costly. Because flipkart charges you for both way courier charges in case of returns.

For RTO orders flipkart do not charge you anything. So it is very important that you keep track of you returns monthly and try to work on return issues for your products.

Flipkart provide an easy to track returns file which can be downloaded from flipkart seller hub.

How to download Flipkart return orders list

Step 1: Login to flipkart seller hub

Step 2: Go to Reports and click on “Create Report”

Step 3: Select report Type as “Fulfilment Reports” and Report Sub-Type as “Returns”. Select Date range for your report and click “Generate”

Step 4: Below is an example flipkart return file

Make sure you check return report on monthly basis and identify low performing SKUs and take appropriate actions.

How to Handle Returns on Flipkart

For every seller, getting order is not the only thing you should know. Some customers will also return your orders.

Some will return for genuine reasons while some users will try to game flipkart and return. As a seller and business owner it is your responsibility to file SPF claims.

When i started selling online, i was not aware of the issues i am going to face on flipkart. One fine day i received a return order which had completely different product which i do not even sell on flipkart.

That is when i started calling flipkart support to find the answer. They guided me on how to file the claim but they did not tell me all the minor details which a seller must know to properly file the claims on flipkart.

Let me show you different scenarios where you are required to file the claims. Important points that should be noted and things you should avoid.

Scenario 1: Customer returned product totally different then original

In this scenario, you chances of getting claims approved is 100%. Take the following pictures:

• Pictures of flipkart outer packaging before opening the return
• Shipping label of return
• Images of products from all sides

Scenario 2: Product seal is broken

Apply for claim only if the product seal is broken. If there is no seal then do not try to claim as your claim will be rejected by flipkart. If your product seal is broken then take below pictures:

• Flipkart return shipping label
• Product packaging before before opening the product
• All side pictures of product packaging
• All side pictures of product

Scenario 3: Original product damaged by customer

If your product is damaged by the customer then you can file for SPF claim on flipkart. Take below pictures and share with flipkart:

• Shipping label of flipkart return package
• All side pictures of product packaging
• All side pictures of the damaged product
• Highlight the damage by editing the photo in mspaint or any other image editor

Scenario 4: Customer used the product and returned back

If customer have used your product and return back then you can file the claim with flipkart. Flipkart will ask you to highlight the images to show that it is used by customer and returned. Below point keep in mind before filing your SPF claim:

• Shipping label image of the return package
• All side images of packaging
• All side images of product
• Highlight the part which makes it look like used and return
• Turn off the beautify settings of your phone to take true color photo of the product

Note if you fail to show that the product is used by customer then your claim will be rejected by flipkart.

Above were the typical and most common scenarios that happens with every seller on flipkart. And you should file SPF claims for all of them.

How to File SPF Claim on Flipkart

There are two ways to file the claim. Below is the the preferred way to file the claim on flipkart:

Step 1: Go to https://seller.flipkart.com/ and login to your flipkart account.

Step 2: Click on the three dot on right, and click on Contact Customer Support

Step 3: On left menu select Payments > SPF related queries > I want to Claim SPF

Step 4: Enter title of your claim, which shows the condition of the product return

Step 5: In description write the condition of the product return and why are you filing the claim

Step 6: Enter Order Id and Order Item ID

You can copy the order id and order item id by searching with the order id in menu Orders > Returns

Now hit Submit and followup with flipkart seller support. You claim will show under My Tickets > SPF Claims

Closing Thoughts

We tried to answer each and every concerns of new flipkart sellers who are new to Flipkart selling. Selling on flipkart is not just about getting more orders but also maintaining your account and other processes which new sellers will not understand.

You can also refer to our other guide on How to Sell On Amazon. It will give an overview of all that is involved with Amazon selling.

If you have any questions or feedback, please comment in the comment section.