Calcutta, April 17: Amazon India is trying to do a balancing act while revising the commission structure for sellers that will come into effect from May 18.

The e-commerce company has revised its referral rates - the amount charged from sellers on the sale - across different categories. The present rates vary from 3 per cent to 22 per cent.

The rates charged by competitors Flipkart and Snapdeal are similar but vary within each category.

While the company has raised the rates for some categories, it has lowered the fee for some others.

While the decision to tweak the rates has irked many sellers, Amazon officials today said they had taken into consideration several aspects, including its competition, before finalising the rates.

"We look into many areas such as how the industry has performed, how a particular category is growing, the cost and margin of the sellers and how we are placed in the competition before deciding on changes in the referral fee structure," said Gopal Pillai, director and general manager, seller services, Amazon India.

"While it is true that we have increased the fee for some categories, we have also decreased in some others. We have cut down on delivery service charges and made no changes in shipping fees," said Pillai.

The rates for books, movies, music, video games, apparel, mobile phones, tablets, computers and allied accessories have been hiked. Charges have been decreased for categories such as gold coins, backpacks, bicycle, gym equipment, home improvement and musical keyboards.

"Our goal is to make all sellers successful and it is in our best interest to offer competitive rates to the sellers so that they can grow on the platform," said Pillai.

Tantuja tie-up

West Bengal Handloom Weavers' Co-operative Society Ltd (Tantuja) has forayed into the overseas market through Amazon's global selling programme.

"Tantuja has been present on the Amazon India platform since August last year. Now, they will have the opportunity of globally selling their handloom products. The global selling programme has grown since its inception in May 2015 in the country. There are 20,000 Indian sellers selling over 45 million products on 10 international marketplaces," Pillai said.