Amazon, Flipkart’s Festive Shock To Sellers: E- Commerce Majors Tighten Fees, Penalties

E-commerce majors Amazon and Flipkart have revised fee and penalty structures for sellers days ahead of the festive season 2026 to begin. Amazon India changed norms to calculate order cancellation fees for sellers using its Easy Ship and Self Ship services, effective from August 17, while Flipkart introduced a three-tier penalty structure for lapses in order fulfilment from August 23. Sellers believe that the move will be an addition to the financial burden on small and medium enterprises already operating on thin margins. 

Amazon Revised Fee And Penalty Structure For Festive Season 2026

What Is Amazon’s Easy Ship:  In this method, sellers store their products, pack them upon receiving orders and then hand them over to an Easy Ship Pickup executive, who then ships the products and ensures timely delivery.

Revised Guidelines:  Under the changed structure, sellers will be charged 10 per cent of the order value for orders less than Rs 10,000, 8 per cent for orders between Rs 10,000 and Rs 50,000, 5 per cent for orders between Rs 50,000 and Rs 100,000, and 2 per cent for orders over Rs 100,000.

In a self-ship situation, the seller uses their own courier or delivery service to pack and deliver the product, with no Amazon logistics involvement. The fee, which was previously based on a category-specific referral charge, is now calculated as a percentage of the order value.

Amazon Revised Seller Fee Key Points

• The fee is applicable both when a seller cancels an order for reasons other than a buyer's request and when an order is automatically cancelled because the seller does not ship and confirm the shipment within 24 hours of the estimated ship date.

What Sellers and Amazon Said? 

"We expect orders placed by customers to be fulfilled reliably by sellers on our marketplace. To encourage timely and dependable fulfilment, we have revised cancellation fees for Easy Ship and Self-Ship sellers. This fee is conditional and only applies in the rare event of a seller-initiated cancellation, which accounts for less than 1 per cent of orders on Amazon.in. We have appropriate measures in place to ensure sellers are protected when cancellations are due to circumstances beyond their control," an Amazon spokesperson said.

Responding to the notice on Amazon's seller forum, some sellers said that cancellations sometimes occur for reasons beyond their control, such as delivery people not showing up for scheduled pickup, and asked why sellers should be charged cancellation fees in such cases.

Another vendor said that the difference in total fees between vendors using Amazon's fulfilment network and vendors on Easy Ship can be up to ₹45 per unit for the same order, which the vendor said creates an unfair competitive situation.

Flipkart Revised Fee And Penalty Structure 2026 

Flipkart has implemented a new three-tier penalty system for order fulfilment errors, and the same has come into effect from August 23, 2026.

Under this updated framework, Flipkart levies Rs 30 per shipment if it isn't ready for pickup by the designated Dispatch By Date (DBD). In case a seller cancels an order or those that default due to missing three dispatch deadlines incur a Rs 60 charge per shipment. Additionally, orders that are both delayed and eventually cancelled attract a Rs 90 penalty per shipment.

Previously, failing to meet a DBD could cause a temporary account lockout, which proved significantly more disruptive for sellers. However, new sellers are excluded from the norms.

(With input from PTI)