Enough headroom for growth

Online retail is still a very small portion of retail in I

flipkart is an Indian e-commerce company headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka. It was Sachin
Bansal and Binny Bansal, alumni of IIT,Delhi who started it in 2007. In its initial years, Flipkart
focused on online sales of books but it later expanded to electronic goods and a variety of other
products. Flipkart offers multiple payment methods like credit card, debit card, net banking, egift voucher and Cash on Delivery.

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The cash-on-delivery model adopted by Flipkart has proven to be of great significance since the
credit card and net banking penetration is very low in India.
Initially word of mouth marketing was used to popularize their company.

2.New product introduction

In 2007, Flipkart started with selling books. The first book sold at flipkart.com was John
Woods' Leaving Microsoft to Change the World Today. In 2010, they added to their catalogue,
media (including music, movies and games) and mobile phones and accessories
In 2011, product launches included cameras, computers, pens & office supplies, computer
accessories, home and kitchen appliances, personal care, health care, gaming consoles, audio
players and televisions. Flipkart is currently the only authorized online reseller of iPods in India.
In October and November 2011, Flipkart acquired the websites Mime360.com and Chakpak.com
Later, in February 2012, the company revealed its new Flyte Digital Music Store. Flyte, a legal
music download service in the vein of iTunes and Amazon.com, will offer DRM-free MP3
downloads. Flyte offers browse by language options where users can download international as
well as regional songs. Flipkart has listed the music based on its genre on the new music store
and has given a lot of variety. Users can shop for tracks from various albums starting at 6 on the
store. A purchased song can only be downloaded maximum 4 times on an internet enabled
device. Flyte garners 600K downloads in 5 months

In 2012, product launches includes health & beauty products, Life style products which includes
watches, belts, bags & luggage.
As far as future is concerned, Flipkart will be looking at bigger investments in our supply chain
and technology. In terms of sales they were earlier looking at a figure of $1bn by 2015. But this
can be achieved in the next one to two years. Flipkart will also be looking at entering new
categories. Additionally, Flipkart Self-Delivery, which currently operates in 27 cities, will be
further scaled up.
In a landmark move, NH7.in, a platform to discover independent music and leading-edge culture
created by Only Much Louder (OML), has partnered with Flipkart.com to create an exclusive
section dedicated to independent music on the Flipkart digital music store, Flyte. The store will
enable independent artists across the country to sell their music digitally to their fans.
The NH7.in store on Flipkart will be a game changer. Up until now, independent artists had
limited avenues to retail their music to the ever-growing fan base for indie music. The NH7.in
community represents the largest group of indie music lovers in the nation. Now, along with
promoting independent music, NH7.in creates an avenue for artists to sell music directly to their
fans, which is the crucial next step for independent arts to grow. In addition to this, four million
monthly users of Flipkart will have access to a wide selection of independent music from India
and around the world at their fingertips.
In July 2012 Flipkart announced the launch of its in-house brand Digiflip. Digiflip is a brand of
digital accessories with products like laptop bags, laptop sleeves and camera bags among others

3. Acquisitions
The following are the acquisitions by Flipkart

2010: WeRead, a social book discovery tool.

The stated goal was to give Flipkart a social recommendation platform for buyers to make
informed decisions based on recommendations from people within their social network.

2011: Mime360, a digital content platform company.

2011: Chakpak.com
Chapak.com is a Bollywood news site that offers updates, news, photos and videos. Flipkart
acquired the rights to Chakpaks digital catalogue which includes 40,000 filmographies, 10,000
movies and close to 50,000 ratings. Flipkart has categorically said that it will not be involved
with the original site and will not use the brand name.

2012: Letsbuy.com

Letsbuy.com is India's second largest e-retailer in electronics. Flipkart has bought the company
for an estimated US$ 25 million.Letsbuy.com had been closed down and all the traffic of
Letsbuy is diverted to Flipkart.

4. Acclaims and accomplishments

Flipkart is among the top 30 Indian Web sites and has been credited with being India's largest
online bookseller with over 11 million titles on offer. Flipkart broke even in March 2010 and
claims to have had at least 100% growth every quarter since its founding. As of today, Flipkart
employs over 4500 people. Flipkart is the third largest online shopping store after EBay and
Amazon.
From a start-up with an investment of just four lakhs rupees, Flipkart has grown into a $100
million-revenue online retail giant in just five years.

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Flipkart's reported sales were 40 million in FY 20082009 200 million in FY 20092010 and
750 million for FY 20102011. In FY 20112012, Flipkart is set to cross the 5 billion (US$100
million) mark as Internet usage in the country increases and people get accustomed to making
purchases online. At average, Flipkart sells nearly 20 products per minute and is aiming at
generating a revenue of 50 billion (US$1 billion) by 2014.
Flipkart.com, the country's first billion-dollar-valued Internet Company, is surely in a state of
perpetual excitement. With 2500 people, daily sales touches a crore. Flipkart has become
synonymous with online book retail and large-scale e-commerce in India. And the key to the
company's success lies in its payment-on-delivery model, which helped overcome the average
Indian consumer's misgivings and built trust.

5. Product Strategy
Flipkart is set out to create something for the Indian market a service that was specifically built
keeping the Indian consumer in mind. For them, the biggest inspiration continues to be the
constant learning process that has been a part of their journey. The other has been the ability to
realize our dream of doing something for the Indian consumer.

As far as entrepreneurship is concerned, Flipkart believes that the core focus for every start-up,
regardless of the industry, should be the same and that is customer focus. By putting the needs
of their customer first and listening to what they have to say, is the only route to building a large,
loyal customer base the blueprint to any business success story.
Consistent customer service is the hallmark of Flipkart. Discounts cannot replace the customer's
satisfaction of being serviced promptly and efficiently. Similarly, the trust-building exercise is
accorded a lot of importance. Flipkart connects with customers in real-time, through Facebook
and Twitter. Honesty is the best policy for this e-commerce trailblazer.
Flipkart is rapidly expanding its network of warehouses, distribution centers, procurement
operations and 24/7 customer support teams. The company has its own delivery network in 37
cities and is set to expand this in the current financial year. With a team of around 4,800
members, the company operates from offices and warehouses in seven Indian cities.

6. Operational strategy
Flipkart began operations on the consignment model goods were procured from suppliers on
demand, based on the orders received through the website. However, eventually, the books-toelectronics e-shop adopted the warehouse model. The company has its own warehouses, and
maintains its own inventory. Sales projection determines the inventory, and the available
inventory accounts for the sales made; it's a self-feeding cycle of sorts. Nearly 60 to 70 per cent
of deliveries take place through their own network as this model provides for better control over
the entire logistics management piece.
On the operational front, issues faced by the company pertain to delay in deliveries, or faulty
products. As a customer-centric, none of these issues can remain unresolved for long. They faced
significant challenges in reverse logistics. It's a big task to track unsuccessful orders, which are
quite costly to manage. Hence, Flipkart stresses on customer service it aligns with the firm's
philosophy of making better our service promise'. Their bigger objective is to redefine the way
India shops.
Flipkart will continue to expand our categories in order to meet the growing consumer interest in
the e-commerce market. They have recently added computer peripherals, kitchen appliances,
televisions and home theatre systems and selected stationery items to their product range. They
will continue to add more products / selection to their existing categories as well.

7. Branding
Flipkart went for a major brand makeover, making it look more up market. There have been
large newspaper ads, TVCs and a lot of web ads. But unlike other ecommerce companies the
inorganic marketing kicked in only when the product was strong. Flipkart already had a proven
model execution with books and extending to other verticals did not need infrastructural changes.
Flipkarts real achievement has been in solving the pain points in Indian ecommerce that most
well funded players are still complaining about.

No Kidding, No Worries
No Kidding, No Worries, the recent advertising and branding campaign of Flipkart is a unique
example of Trap Them Young. An in-depth analysis of recent advertisement campaign of
Flipkart strongly conveys Indian youths sentiments and their desire. The story board of adverts,
features kids in adult situations, like a beauty parlor, a cafe, and an office. The Hinglish language
& the happening places is the heart of No Kidding, No Worries advertisement series. The
creative director succeeds to keep KOOLNESS of Brand Flipkart.

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Flipkart attacks the online fears
Flipkart carefully chooses their way forward. For now, Flipkart seems to be playing their cards
right. Flipkart.com has aired three TVCs. Each of the ads attacks a distinct fear in the
consumers mind towards online shopping, and how Flipkart solves that problem.
Fear of wrong product 30 day replacement guarantee
Fear of giving credit card details online Cash on Delivery feature
Fear of not getting the original product Original products with original warrantee
The creatives using kids to break through the clutter, and the consumer worry and the solution
offered by Flipkart is clearly communicated. The brand Flipkart.com at the end is also very
clear to be missed, which gives the branded breakthrough.
30 day Replacement guarantee
Flipkart.com offers you REPLACEMENT WITHIN 30 DAYS FROM THE DATE OF
DELIVERY ON THE product/s ordered on Flipkart.com i.e. if at the time of delivery and/or
within 30 days from the date of delivery of the product/s, if any defect is found, then the buyer of
the product/s can ask for replacement of the product/s subject to some terms and conditions:
Order cancellation

Cancellation of orders of products is permitted before the product gets shipped and the entire
payment amount is refundable. But products such e-Gift Vouchers, Wallet Top-Ups, etc are nonrefundable.
Free shipping
Flipkart provides free delivery on all items if your total order amount is Rs. 300/- or more.
Otherwise Rs. 30/- is charged as delivery charges.

8. Flipkarts strategy in solving problems in E-commerce

1. Discoverability:
It is the case with any venture on the web, How does the customer find us? Answer:
Organically! Flipkart has been the baap of SEO. This has been the most important contributor
to their success. Only when you see people coming to you, you get encouraged to deliver more
and keep adding. There is no fun (motivation) in adding features to a product that no one is
using.
SEO did not come the straightway. There were particularly 2 things that are worth mentioning.

a. Yahoo News:
Until last year Flipkart had a feed of Yahoo News on its product pages. From what SEO means,
this is to increase the keyword density and introduce original content on the page, as the
product description across all books sites is same.

b. We Do Not Sell Used Books:

We DO NOT sell old books or used books. All the books listed at Flipkart.com are new books.
The books listed at Flipkart.com are NOT available for free download in ebook or PDF format.
The magic of this text is that if searched for <book name> free eBookor <book name> pdf
download you would always get Flipkart among the top results. These are very popular search
queries and Flipkart had nothing to do with it but still they cashed in. This was also the time
when Flipkart had Adsense embedded. People would come to the site, see nothing like a PDF
download button, and then see an ad for PDF download and click. This meant more revenue for
Flipkart. Given that the margin on books are very small after the discount, Flipkart was probably
earning more by saying what they did not do than by doing what they actually were suppose to
do.

2. Payments:

No credit card/net banking, fear to transact online, repeat transaction failures, no access to web
these are the common problems with online payments. What Flipkart is doing to overcome
these?
Flipkart had at least 4 different Payment Gateways integrated. They introduced Cash-onDelivery. Then they are also doing order on phone. Payment via DD/Cheque is also accepted.
2 basic things that they are currently doing that take little technical effort but quite some product
management will:
a. Auto redirection to banking site: Unlike most other ecommerce sites, Flipkart never lands you
on CCavenue page, you are auto redirected to the banks page where the info is required to be
filled. Flipkart by-passes 1 unnecessary page by passing the required parameters directly to
CCavenue and not through a user interface.
b. Banks Status: Flipkart maintains its own real time status if the banks net banking is working
or not. So there are no surprises after you have chosen the bank and then go to the net banking
page.

3. Inventory:
In the world of eCommerce, the players keep a standard list of products and then go
out procuring it only when there is an order placed. There is no inventory on their end and there
is no live status of inventory from their supplier. Remember The Alchemist, Never Promise
something that you dont have.

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After placing an order, they would keep looking for the product at multiple places. After a week
you might get a call saying that either the product is not available and we will do a favor by
refunding your money or if the product is there, it is not the color/size that you asked for.
Flipkart was no different in 2009, many customers used to get similar calls after days of
ordering. But for the last 1 year at least Flipkart maintains its own inventory (or at least it seems
so). They are selling what they have. From pure hearsay, Flipkart is taking up a big warehouse in
Bangalore and is in talks for one in NCR as well. One of the few companies that is using the
funding to build a business and not spend it like a FMCG company on ads

4. Delivery:
Flipkart is exploiting the delivery problem as a cashable need gap and building its own delivery
backend. Flipkart is seen delivering through their own delivery boys in Bangalore and at times
within 12hrs from order.
Flipkart has started putting fliers in newspapers in Bangalore with a product listing, call-to-order
phone number and a promise of delivering tomorrow. This means more discoverability, no
payment problem and no delivery delay.
Flipkart is looking to build its own courier company. The recent $20Mn funding from Tiger
Global was only part of a larger sum they are known to be raising. Flipkart is looking to raise
$100Mn at a valuation of $200Mn.
9. Marketing
It is very difficult to sell a product which has been offered intentionally high to a middle
customer in India. But then the customer is getting that offer at the comfort of their home. Any
customer will like this and will pay the amount tagged by retailer. But how can this idea are
promoted. Flipkart used Word of Mouth as their best marketing tool to sell their product. A
satisfied customer tells others also about a good experience, and this how the business of Flipkart
depends. Flipkart has been using different Social Networking Engines to promote their product.
Promotions on Facebook, twitter and other social sites helps in gaining some attention, but to
some extent, the rest has been done by Services offered by Customer.
Customer satisfaction has been their best marketing medium. Flipkart very wisely used SEO
(Search Engine Optimization) and Google Ad-words as the marketing tools to have a far reach in
the online world. Flipkart.com official Face book page has close to 9 lac 'likes'. Flipkart recently
launched a series of 3 ads with the tag line - "No Kidding No worries". Kids were used to create
the adverts to send out the message - if a kid can do it, you can also do it.
The message is very clear to make people more comfortable with Flipkart, to generate a great
customer relationship and loyalty on the basis of great product prices and excellent customer
service. All in all to create a great customer experience.

10. Pricing strategies

Without going into the theoretical and the management theories, pricing can be set on the
following points:
1. Operating Margins - Essentially determining what the company earns to sustain business and
turn a profit
2. Strategic pricing - Basically overall pricing strategy where some products are given at a higher
discount in order to capture market share or consumer mindshare.

So individual product pricing can be higher or lower while the overall picture is kept in mind so
that the company as a whole can sustain itself on an overall profits or deep enough pockets to
work on losses for sometimes.
Price is optimized best when the overall cost to the company per product is optimized. So that
means here the contributing factors have to be looked at and the costing there has to be
optimized.
So looking at the major cost factors that affect the E-Commerce that are taken care of Flipkart:
1. Supply Chain (procurement and shipping):
Flip karts core competency lies in their Supply chain and logistics which has been perfectly
monitored and managed by professionals. This involves a deep understanding of where the
suppliers are and where the end consumers are so that when a customer orders a product, it can
reach him by the shortest route in the shortest time and minimum manpower time being spent.

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This also means that customer demand is anticipated and pre-emptive steps are taken so that
products are ready to be shipped from the point closest to the consumer before he even places the
order.
This helps in reducing the overall cost of moving the product to consumers place. The overall
cost of Flipkart has been reduced to great extent, all thanks to Blue Dart, the logistics partner
of Flipkart. It is so because the transportation cost has been reduced and therefore Flipkart is
able to earn a reasonable margin on the sale of product, belongs to the actual producer
2. Manpower and time spent on each order:
We must understand that all operations have to be made sustainable and more importantly
scalable for ultimate long term growth. So all process from what route a person takes to pick up
material to how much time it takes to pack a product have to be looked at and it is when a
company works toward optimizing all these processes that a company really starts to take the
lead.
11. Competition

Competition is increasing day by day and by the end of 2015, there will be huge number of
players in E-commerce in India. With the rise in Internet users, the numbers of e-commerce
companies are also increasing. So Flipkart will definitely face tough fights in future
and they should be ready for it. Snapdeal is currently the biggest competitor of Flipkart. Other
close competitor includes Groupon, best deals etc.

12. Tackling competition

Great website:
Flipkarts website is great, easy to use, easy to browse through the products, add products to
wishlist or to a cart, get product reviews and opinions, pre-order products, make payments using
different methods, in short hassle- free and convenient.
Great Delivery system
When user places an order, the postal address has been tracked. And the order goes to nearest
warehouse. And it is being packed, picked up and delivered by local courier company. The
advantage of cash on delivery is no fraudulent activities or anything. When the item is delivered
makes sure the item is there and then pays. And also user can track the routine of item through
email. And the company informs about the status of item.

Great books and hot deals

Flipkart offers excellent collection of books, DVDs, movies, electronics items, home appliances,
and life style and health care products. Flipkart promo coupons and discount coupons are also
available. One another feature of Flipkart is best deals and offers. When you place an order
greater than 300 INR, youll get free shipping.

Excellent communication system

Flipkart is renowned by their relationship with the customer. If you are facing any difficulties
getting the product you can contact them via telephone (like everyone 24/7), email or through
website.
India is a hard place for delivering any item but Flipkart is managing to deliver the item in 2-3
business days. If the order you placed is not available dont worry. The enquiry goes to nearest
supplier and the item becomes available It will delivered within 24 hour. Flipkart is aiming to
bring down the delivery time of regular orders to 24 hour. An excellent marketing strategy by
Flipkart marketing team to increase the sales

Great customer retention rate

Flipkart's reason of success is that it has a great customer retention rate, it has around 15 lac
individual customers and more than 70% customers are repeat customers i.e. they shop various
times each year. The company targets to have a customer base of 1 crore by 2015.

Credible and Easy Payment system:

Flipkart offers many modes of payment such as
Credit/debit card
Net banking
Cash on delivery.
0% EMI
Online Wallet
Also Flipkart offers 0% EMI on transactions made on credit card payment where the whole
amount can be paid in 3 monthly installments without any extra charge. For installment greater
than 3 months, a minimal charge is levied.
Flipkart Adds Online Wallet to Ease Payment Woes
Flipkart has added a new Walletfeature to enable customers store money in their Flipkart
account and redeem it on future purchases. Flipkart Wallet works on a prepaid credit system: you
can top up your wallet with any desirable amount up to Rs 10,000 by using any one of its regular
payment modes like credit card, debit card, and net-banking. This amount will then be reflected
as prepaid credit on your account and can be used as a payment mode for all forthcoming
purchases on the portal. Expectedly, this amount will be deducted from the balance in your
accounts wallet. Flipkart allows you to make a partial payment using your Wallet and pay the
remaining amount using other payment modes like credit card, debit card, and net-banking.
Flipkart does point out that cash-on-delivery payment mode cannot be combined with a Wallet
payment. This is Flipkarts way of bypassing payment gateway problems and also facilitates
frequent shoppers

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13. Pros and Cons of Cash on Delivery model

E-commerce works on the principle of negative working capital. In other words the vendor does
not use his capital in procuring the goods rather uses your payments made in advance to procure
the goods and deliver it. Let me take an example, just imagine you bought an iPad on line, and
you paid for it using your credit card. Now the money from the credit card is debited
immediately while the delivery of the iPad takes about a week or 15 days. Now most firms can
procure faster and deliver but they take that extra few days as they retain the payment and can
put it to other use or simply generate interest for those few days. This model was pioneered by
Dell when they sold their laptops extensively through Dell Direct and it had worked very well for
them earlier.
Now this model is under threat as consumers in India work on the cash on delivery model. Now
in the global scenario Cash on delivery accounts for almost 15% of transactions according to a
Nielson report. But in India it is almost 80%.
Apart from locking up working capital, cash on delivery also adds to the complexity of the
supply chain. Plus there is an added threat as collection is done by the delivery agents and often
there is an element of hazard while using external collection agents.
Despite these challenges Cash on Delivery has led to the boom in the e-commerce in India and
does not look like the model is going away soon. So what can e-retailers do to sustain themselves
in this environment?
1. Have cash on delivery (COD) only for select categories. Often using COD for all categories
may not make logistical sense. Some of the categories like books etc may not need COD model.
While electronics is something that COD model would work better.
2. Keep a minimum purchase limit for availing COD. Now I have had many experiences on
setting limits and not too many people in India have been very happy with it. But in the US and
Western Europe there have often been limits on setting OD facilities.
3. Start a small charge for COD, maybe a tiny amount to begin with but sooner or later the
charge could potentially off set the working capital deficit.

14. Future strategy for Flipkart

Overnight successes usually last just that one night. Strategy has got to lay out a more forwardlooking roadmap for a company that spans multiple years. To make things simple, lay the future
out into three phases Build, Pull Away and Transform. These do not need to and indeed
should not be distinct phases but rather overlap each other to benefit from positive momentum
that each phase builds and hands over to the next.

Build: A solid foundation is half the good work

In its first phase of transformation Flipkart must build deeper engagement with its customers. It
needs to both build a deeper relationship with its buyers and provide those touch points that are
more omnipresent than the web-based Internet.
Loyalty: It is strange that for a service that is not vividly distinguished from me-too, Flipkart
chose not be build loyalty programs. Loyalty need not have just the old school implementation of
co-branded shopping appliances like credit cards. Loyalty programs need to be deeper, where
someone who has greater wallet spends at Flipkart feels rewarded both monetarily and more
importantly otherwise. Flipkart Coupons is another loyalty device conspicuous by its absence.
As gifting increasingly strives to put last-mile choices back in the hand of the recipient, a loyalty
program based on redeemable coupons will deepen association with the customer. Corporations
spend a lot of money in fine tuning their Rewards & Recognition programs to make them
suitable for the young demography a space that Flipkart can immediately capture (and since
corporations buy coupons in bulk, a part of working capital management can also be taken off in
the process).
Touch points: Ecommerce is shifting from the browser to applications that sit on devices.
Flipkart can regain its first mover advantage by introducing iOS and Android apps that make
shopping much easier than on native browsers.
Ring fencing customers and pampering those who return for more is crucial in the build-out
phase. For years, Flipkart has focused on internal effectiveness and not so much on the customer
and it is about time to change that. There is also an important mindset change that needs to
happen at this phase increasing value for not only buyers but also sellers who would benefit the
most in having access to the Flipkart platform. The outcome of such thinking will play an
important part in the late-second and third stage of this transformation

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Pull Away: Inorganic growth and building the ecosystem

Exploit adjacencies: Having built a solid foundation where the customer has been placed at the
focus of future planning (in addition to internal effectiveness, which Flipkart has always excelled
in), opportunities in adjacencies need to exploited. Category expansion, which Flipkart has been
at, is one way to provide buyers with all their needs on a single platform and leverage scale.
There are adjacent categories however that have already matured into full-fledged businesses
with similar not exact contours. Take travel for example. The basic fabric of the business is
similar acquire inventories from suppliers, build a technology platform for delivery, squeeze

out a bit of margin and deliver the product by careful customer segmentation minus the added
headache of physical deliveries. Standing where we are, categories such as these are too difficult
to build grounds up for Flipkart. Hence an acquisition is the best route to increase momentum on
the ecommerce flywheel Flipkart has already built and set in motion.
Build the ecosystem: When a business model has successful equivalents in developed markets,
the role of a local strategist becomes easy import ideas. How successful will a Flipkart
handheld device or Flipkart Web Services become? What is interesting however is building a
supply ecosystem where original creators are encouraged to participate on the platform without
losing value to intermediaries. Authors are a very obvious target audience in this category, which
itself has a very wide range encompassing text books, animated books, restored (and retold)
classics, fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels the list can go on. Besides the content, form has
diversified significantly, thanks to bloggers and journalists. Developing relationships with
producers directly (building the relationship is not entirely easy) and co-creating products
increases the value of the Flipkart platform for those who were perhaps dis-intermediated or
losing too much to make authoring a successful profession (authors has been used
metaphorically somewhat. This strategy holds good for any original producer of
content/merchandise. For example, this can work as well for art and handicrafts as it will for
books).
Inorganic expansion and building ecosystems should herald a different thinking process for
Flipkart a line of thinking that transforms the business from being a service providing
ecommerce to becoming an electronic marketplace and platform. Platform companies (Eric
Schmidt named Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google as the Gang of Four Platform
Companies) are ones that come with a core and then combine complements from a variety of
other providers to add disproportionate value to the service. Platform companies are difficult to
build but once done (and there are important technology and business considerations) are in the
long-term more successful than pure-play product or service players.
This phase of pulling away is the most important phase in Flipkarts strategy, in both design and
execution.

Transformation: Onwards to Flipkart 2.0

The vision for a transformed Flipkart is where Flipkart is a platform inviting multiple entities to
participate not only as part of the supply chain, catalogues and consumption but most
importantly in innovation. Think of it this way: where in a fast-forwarded world Flipkart is a
platform for providing online education content to a vast majority of institutions in India.
Creators of content will always strive to innovate and Flipkart being a platform will reap the
benefits of that innovation without having to explicitly participate in it. On the same platform
innovators will bring newer ways to present the content and perhaps another participant will
make learning more social.
Leveraging scale becomes easier for a platform company. Continuing with the earlier example,
investments in building incremental ecosystems can present disproportionate rewards to business
outcomes for Flipkart. The same (or very closely related) content for education could be as

applicable in Southern Africa as is it is India, opening up immediately vast business potential.

The true unlocking of scale can easily happen in a world where Flipkart is a platform rather than
an ecommerce service.
A large-scale program that takes a product or service company and transforms it into a platform
play is not simple. For some it could be a lifes dream. But it certainly is a dream worth living.
For a company like Flipkart that has already transformed the ecommerce market in India, this
could be the second calling for a chance of inclusion in historys wall of fame.

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Conclusion
Flipkart is a story that comes from smart work and an it is possible attitude. There is a need to
for a couple of more stories like these and there would be no cribbing about Indian E-Commerce
not working.
Their aim is to make Flipkart synonymous with the shopping experience in India.
E-commerce in India has a huge potential going forward and this is just the start. They have a lot
of work ahead of us if they are to fully realize this potential they feel it will be some time
before they actually look overseas
The USP of Flipkart is to provide the consumers with the best online shopping experience. The
company aims to provide its customers with good value and wants to be regarded as one of the
most friendly service providers in the domain.
It is also looking to become the biggest e-commerce organization of India while retaining its
focus on serving the customers to the best of their abilities. It will also look to innovate in this
domain and try to expand its offerings so that customers have more to choose from.
These are the reasons why many love Flipkart. Some people calling it as Amazon of India which
fits to Flipkart

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ndia
9

Online sales,
4 Mn, 2%
Offline sales,
243 Mn, 98%

247Mn mobiles shipments in India CY2013

Online sales,
45 Mn, 7%
Offline sales,
555 Mn,
93%

600Mn books sold in India CY 2013

Online sales,
$0.08 Bn, 0.2%
Offline sales,
$44.92 Bn,
99.8%

USD 45Bn jewellery sales in India CY 2013

Online sales,
$0.5 Bn, 1%
Offline sales,
$42 Bn, 99%

USD 43Bn fashion + footwear sales in India CY 2013

Accel estimates, Accel portfolio companies and industry sources: CMR, FICCI, Deloitte

GROWTH FACTORS