According to reports, sellers are up in arms over ecommerce firm Meesho's move to tighten control on product returns.

Over the past few weeks, these sellers – especially in Surat, one of the largest hubs for fashion and apparel merchants - have given Meesho negative reviews and ratings on its app and stopped processing orders through the platform.

Meesho undertook changes to its product returns policy following feedback from its third-party logistics partners, the sources added. Returns comprise a big cost area for e-commerce players in India as it adds to logistics expenditure.

The late-stage startup, which specializes in selling low-priced apparel, home and lifestyle items, has streamlined the returns policy at a time when internet firms are cutting costs because of a funding squeeze.

Meesho has consistently attempted to reduce operating costs and conserve cash. Its plans to raise at least $1 billion last year did not materialize due to multiple issues, including a valuation mismatch.

Meesho’s sellers have seen sales decline after a bump-up during the festive season last year, several merchants told ET. Other ecommerce marketplaces like Flipkart and Amazon India have also clocked moderate growth in recent weeks.

As per reports, e-tailers have clocked incremental gain in sales during the ongoing Republic Day sale period, though the numbers have not yet been fully assessed.

The SoftBank-backed firm has put in place technical changes, new barcodes and video verification of the product packing, after the Bengaluru-based company started implementing thorough checks on returned products at the beginning of the year.

Meesho was more lenient with these returns, and many a time, merchants –knowing that large volumes of products were being returned – will not accept these products and claim compensation after a stipulated period of time, according to the reports.