With fight between Online retailers and Offline retailers intensify, each one is trying to defend its position on the matter. One of India’s top online retailer Snapdeal has put up a new announcement under its website (snapdeal.com/100percentauthorized) that roughly says that they ‘sell only 100% genuine products from authorized sellers’.
Snapdeal has published an FAQ section about this to clear the common doubts among its buyers. One of the FAQ answer says “Snapdeal.com is a marketplace that only allows listing from authorized sellers who sell 100% genuine & authentic products which carry standard brand warranty.” and another says “Warranty of products bought through Snapdeal.com can be availed from all authorized service centres by carrying the Invoice copy of the product purchased.” Snapdeal also explains how to check warranty details of the product listed with them.
Above all this Snapdeal also ensure 100% money back guarantee with its TrustPay policy, where they offer guarantees for every purchase users make and gives them 100% of their money back in case Snapdeal faulter on their commitments.
The issue started first with Lenovo issuing a warning to customers from buying its products from Indian online e-commerce website especially Snapdeal, Flipkart and Amazon India. This was followed by electronics manufacturer Toshiba, who also issued an warning for Indian customers buying its laptops and LED Tvs from online stores and finally Canon India joining it by issuing an advisory against buying from unauthorized online retailers.
The root cause behind all this issue is that, Indian online retailers tend to sell the products at a cheaper rate than the original MRP set by a company with discounts and offers. This have caused issues for original resellers mainly the brick and mortar ones who can’t match up with this discounts.
According to a report published in The Hindu, representatives of the Confederation of I.T. Associations, a collective of over 1,500 vendors of computer hardware and gadgets in Chennai have asked the Government of Tamil Nadu to introduce an entry tax for online goods as well as to explore possible exploitation of VAT by the Indian e-commerce companies.