Meanwhile, responding to Tuoi Tre, a representative of Shopee affirmed that holding the transaction amount between the buyer and seller until the order is completed is one of the measures to protect the interests of both parties.
This floor also said that it is not a lending unit but only connects with credit institutions to allow qualified sellers to borrow...
Having trouble because of capital occupation for too long
As someone who owns 3 shops on Shopee, with sales of about 400-500 million VND/month, Mr. H. said he supports extending the return period but does not support keeping money after customers are "satisfied with the product".
According to Mr. H., when participating in selling on the platform, the cost is very high. If there are many shops, the cost and the level of damage when money is held for up to half a month is not small.
"I alone have about 400 million VND, but there are many people in the seller community. So, the "capital" that Shopee keeps is a lot, while sellers still have to pay many other expenses," said Mr. H., adding that if their capital is occupied for a long time, many sellers will certainly suffer losses, and risk having to close their shops or find other platforms because the cost to maintain the shops' operations is very high.
Specifically, with a turnover of 400 million VND/month, Mr. H. listed a series of expenses surrounding the business on the floor in a month, such as salary for two packaging staff of 20 million VND (including lunch), warehouse fee of 10 million VND, electricity bill of 1 million VND, Shopee fee of 12%, advertising cost of 6%, packaging fee of 1%, risk of 2%, soft cost of 1%, tax of 1.5%...
Also admitting the "misery" of shop owners with hundreds, thousands of orders per day when Shopee holds money for more than 15 days, Ms. Nguyen Thi Anh (Ho Chi Minh City, cosmetics seller) complained that the money was coming in quickly but suddenly came in slowly, she was not used to it at the moment.
"But everything has two sides. This policy will also force shop owners to do business with prestige, with real products as shown in the pictures, and real products as shown in the pictures when they reach customers. Gradually, shops that only order based on quantity without thinking about quality will be eliminated," said Ms. Anh.
Meanwhile, although supporting the improvement of customer experience, shop owner N. Tam said that there are risks and costs that are not the seller's fault but the seller has to bear the brunt.
"It's obvious that improving the experience will make buyers happy and satisfied, but not all customers are serious. Returns with unreasonable reasons, Shopee still allows returns of worn clothes and requires sellers to prove body odor is unacceptable," he said.
According to this person, this is also the reason why sellers no longer offer many special incentives to customers like before.
"I hope Shopee will adjust in the direction of truly considering sellers as fair partners. Only then can sellers wholeheartedly care for and support customers, contributing to creating more jobs for society," shop owner N. Tam commented.
"Hoarding money" to protect the interests of both sides?
At the end of March 26, responding to Tuoi Tre about the e-commerce platform Shopee being accused of appropriating sellers' capital and lending at high interest rates, the representative of this platform said that the SEasy seller lending service was introduced by Shopee since August 2023, provided by the platform's partners, which are licensed credit institutions and provided through the Shopee e-commerce platform.
"We are not a lending unit. Credit facilities will be provided by credit institutions in compliance with relevant legal regulations. SEasy is one of Shopee's accompanying supports for sellers. Sellers can consider using it to ensure seamless cash flow, helping to expand their business on this platform easily at a reasonable cost," the representative of this platform informed.
Regarding the 15-day return and refund policy and the seller's accusation of money being withheld and capital misappropriation, Shopee's representative said that holding the transaction amount between the buyer and seller until the order is completed is one of the measures to protect the interests of both parties.
Accordingly, sellers can have order revenue recorded in their Shopee account balance.
This amount will be transferred to the seller immediately after the buyer clicks "Received item", or on the 8th day or later from the date the order is successfully delivered and the buyer has no request for return/refund.
Or after the return/refund request period has expired, applicable to orders that need Shopee's review. With this process, Shopee acts as an intermediary to check and handle complaints between buyers and sellers.
"Shopee will have policies to adjust and limit the benefits when trading on the platform for buyers who show signs of taking advantage of orders. At the same time, we allow sellers to complain if the decision is not satisfactory. We are ready to respond and compensate sellers if the complaints are determined to be valid," said a Shopee representative.
Explaining further the cases in which the right to return goods for the reason of "changing mind" is allowed, a Shopee representative said that this reason only applies to products that are still intact, with original labels, original production boxes, full accessories, and documents so that the seller can continue to use them for subsequent orders.
"The floor also has measures to deal with requests for returns and refunds that show signs of abusing the new policy...", he said.
Create bad habits for customers?
After Tuoi Tre published an article about Shopee being accused of misappropriating capital (Tuoi Tre, March 26), while readers who are buyers all spoke out in support of extending the return period, readers who are shop owners on Shopee were upset and spoke out about the unreasonable policies applied by this platform.
For example, reader Tuan Nguyen, who claims to always sell genuine products with full invoices, said that "Shopee always uses excuses to demand fines."
"Shopee deliberately did not know that they had sent documents to fine them. When the goods were returned, the customer paid in full, Shopee paid less, the returned goods were damaged, the customer used the goods but still accepted the return, the shop suffered all the losses. The money was held for a long time, the time to prepare the goods was shortened day by day. I am also gradually switching to another platform," said this reader.
Meanwhile, reader baotran thinks that the new policy can make buyers feel comfortable and at ease when shopping, but "the 15-day capital appropriation and indiscriminate refunds like Shopee now" is completely disagreeable.
"1 shop has 10 orders a day worth more than 1 million, so how many shops and how much money does Shopee keep? Buyers have used the products but still return them and Shopee allows refunds, causing bad shopping habits," this reader emphasized.
Source
Comment (0)