Marketing Strategy of Flipkart Final Proj

Marketing Strategy of Flipkart
CHAPTER 1
1.1
1.2
INTRODUCTION
HISTORY OF MARKETING STRATEGY OF
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
1.9
FLIPKART
FUNCTION
MERITS AND DEMERITS
SWOT ANALYSIS OF FLIPKART
FLIPKART MARKET OVERVIEW
MARKET SEGMENTATION
MARKET POSITIONING
MAJOR COMPETITORS
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1.1 INTRODUCTION
Things are easier said than done! To realize our dreams and that also in such a
grand manner is really a tough task. The founders of Flipkart have probably
conquered their dreams with the amazing success of Flipkart. Flipkart is something
which has really opened up the Indian e-commerce market and that also in a big
way. Flipkart was co-founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in Oct 2007.
Both are graduates from IIT-Delhi and have prior work experience in Amazon.com
They both were solid coders and wanted to open a portal that compared different ecommerce websites, but there were hardly any such sites in India and they decided
to give birth to their own e-commerce venture - Flipkart.com Thus was born
Flipkart in Oct 2007 with an initial investment of 4 lac (co-founders savings). It
was never going to be easy since India has bad past experiences with e-commerce
trading. It was not an easy segment to break into, people were very particular in
paying money for something which they had not seen and received. The trust was
missing in the Indian customers. So what Flipkart had to do was to instill trust and
faith in their customers. And they did exactly the same, will discuss more on how
they did so later in the post. Flipkart began with selling books, since books are
easy to procure, target market which reads books is in abundance, books provide
more margin, are easy to pack and deliver, do not get damaged in transit and most
importantly books are not very expensive, so the amount of money a customer has
to spend to try out one's service for one time is very minimal. Flipkart sold only
books for the first two years. Flipkart started with the consignment model
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(procurement based on demand) i.e. they had ties with 2 distributors in Bangalore,
whenever a customer ordered a book, they used to personally procure the book
from the dealer, pack the book in their office and then courier the same. In the
initial months the founder's personal cell numbers used to be the customer support
numbers. So, in the start they tried their best to provide good service, focus on the
website - easy to browse and order and hassle-free, and strove hard to resolve any
customer issues. Since there were not any established players in the market, this
allowed them a lot of space to grow, and they did in fact grew very rapidly.
Flipkart had a revenue of 4 crore in FY 2008 - 2009, 20 crore in FY 2009 - 2010,
75 crore in FY 2010 - 2011, and the revenue for FY 2011 - 2012 which ends on 31
Mar 2012 is expected to be 500 crore. This is indeed a massive growth. The
company targets revenues of 5000 crore by 2015. The company started from 2
employees and now has around 4500 employees. Flipkart started with consignment
model as discussed above, since most of the customer issues like delivery delays
etc. result from procurement model, the company started opening its own
warehouses as it started getting more investments. The company opened its first
warehouse in Bangalore and later on opened warehouses in Delhi, Kolkata and
Mumbai. Today the company works with more than 500 suppliers. As on date
more than 80% orders of Flipkart are handled via warehouses which help in quick
and efficient service. A humble beginning from books, Flipkart now has a gamut of
products ranging from: Cell phones, laptops, computers, cameras, games, music,
audio players, TV's, healthcare products, washing machines etc. etc. Still, Flipkart
derives around 50% of its revenue from selling books online. Flipkart is the Indian
market leader in selling books both offline and online, it enjoys an online share of
around 80%. The electronic items have a large number of players like Naaptol,
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Letsbuy, Indiaplaza, Tradus, Infibeam, Yebhi etc. The electronic market share is
distributed among them in different unknown proportions. India has around 13.5
crore internet users today where as the number of homes with Cable and Satellite
(C&S) television is 10.5 crore. The expected internet users will reach a figure of
30 crore by 2014 and C&S homes are expected to be 14 crore by 2014. Thus India
has a tremendous internet growth and with the customers getting accustomed to ecommerce, the future of e- commerce sector is definitely rosy. An approximated 25
lac people have transacted online this year, the number is all set to increase with
time. Also to mention most of the Flipkart customers use internet from
PC's/Laptops to order goods. The use of mobile internet is very less at the moment,
but with the advent of smart phones the use of mobile internet for e-commerce
transactions will soar with time. India has 8 crore mobile net users at the moment,
the number is expected to swell to 22.5 crore by 2014.
Interesting Statistics about the company As of today, Flipkart employs over 4500
people. It experiences 2 million unit sales and 4 million unique visitors per
month with sales growing at 25% per month, eyeing a $50 million run rate. With
close to 11.5 million titles, Flipkart is the largest online book retailer in India with
80 per cent market share. It has a registered user base of two million customers
and ships out as many as 30,000 items a day, clocking daily sales of Rs 2.5 crore.
Flipkart is rapidly expanding its network of warehouses, distribution centers,
procurement operations and 24/7 customer support teams. The company even has
its own delivery network in 27 cities and is set to expand this even further by next
year.
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1.2: HISTORY OF FLIPKART
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Back in 2007, when Flipkart was launched, Indian e-commerce industry was taking
its beginner steps. The company is registered in Singapore, but theyir headquarters
are in the city of Bangalore, India.
Founders
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Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal , who were working for Amazon.com had an idea to
start an e-commerce company in India. Both of them are alumni of IIT, Delhi and are
native of Chandigarh, India. They left their jobs in Amazon to start their own
business.One can easily call that a risky move. In a country where people have
various tastes and preferences, an ecommerce start-up will always have enormous
challenges. In India, people often prefer to shop in person and buy goods they see
and like. Today, thanks to Flipkart, e-commerce has become one of the fastest
growing sectors in India.
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HOW IT STARTED
Flipkart began selling books to begin with. It soon expanded and began offering a wide
variety of goods. Innovating right from the start, Flipkart has been home to few of the
striking features of Indian e-commerce.
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Fundings History
In the first few years of its existence, Flipkart raised funds through venture
capital funding. As the company grew in stature, more funding arrived. Flipkart
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repaid the investors faith with terrific performances year after year. In the
financial year 2008-09, Flipkart had made sales to the tune of 40 million Indian
rupees. This soon increased to 200 million Indian rupees the following year.Their
last round of Fundraising had increased their value to $ 15 billion, however, as of
February 2016, according to Morgan Stanley, their estimated value stands at $11
billion.
Evolution
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Back at the time when Flipkart was launched, any e-commerce company faced two
major difficulties. One was the problem of online payment gateways. Not many people
preferred online payment and the gateways were not easy to set up. Flipkart tackled this
problem by introducing cash on delivery and payment by card on delivery in addition to
others. Flipkart was the first to implement the popular Cash On Delivery facility, which
every online shopping website in India offers as an option today.
The second problem was the entire supply chain system. Delivering goods on time is
one of the most important factor that determines the success of an ecommerce
company. Flipkart addressed this issue by launching their own supply chain
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management system to deliver orders in a timely fashion.Today as it stands, Sachin
Bansal is the Chairman of the company and Binny Bansal is the CEO of Flipkart.
Acquisitions
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Flipkart also acquired few companies like Myntra.com, LetsBuy.com etc., to better
their presence in the market. With the entry of Amazon.com in India, the competition
between the companies has seen many takeovers. Flipkarts journey from a small book
e-retailer to Indias largest e-commerce platform inspires a generation of start-ups. In a
country where stereotypes are common, Flipkart managed to break the norm and change
the ecommerce industry in India for ever. Flipkarts story proves that if you have a great
idea, and you are a doer and not a thinker, success is not far off.
1.3 FUNCTION OF FLIPKART
Almost every urban and tech-savvy Indian is familiar with the fairy tale of Flipkart, how
the two founders started with absolutely no inventory but would go out and source the
book before delivering it and the enormous funding that they went on to raise on the
path
to
hitting
the
$1
billion
GMV
target
earlier
this
year.
The e-commerce side of the story is what is well known and publicized in the popular
media. But Flipkart has been working quietly to diversify into allied businesses and
supplement
the
revenue
and
boost
their
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bottom
line
in
the
process.

Flipkart currently has 6 different entities with various names as per publicly available
information. The function of each entity and the product / service owned within is
unclear.
WS Retail Services Pvt Ltd

Although WS Retail was incorporated in 2009, most of the products being sold on
Flipkart till 2013 were from the inventory owned by Flipkart. As seen in an earlier post,
this was at a time when the FEMA policies on e-commerce and multi-brand retail were
unclear.
As the rules became clear that e-commerce and multi-brand retail entities could not have
FDI, WS Retail was sold off to a group of HNIs led by Rajiv Kuchhal in 2013, with a
board comprising of unknown individuals rumoured to be relatives of the Flipkart
founders
(unconfirmed).
If true, this makes it a notional separation with WS Retail working closely with Flipkart,
although
they
are
two
different
legal
entities.
Currently, Flipkart is operating in the marketplace model where any seller can put up
their products and pay a commission to Flipkart. However, it is to be noted that a vast
majority of products available are owned by WS Retail, making it one of the largest
sellers by far.
PayZippy (Flipkart Payment Gateway Services Pvt Ltd)

This company was incorporated in 2011 with the board comprising of Amod Malviya
and others. Amod is currently the CTO of Flipkart and was earlier the Head of
Engineering. He has prior experience of financial transactions in ApnaPaisa.com.
PayZippy Merchant services (payment gateway) was launched in July 2013 with the
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claimed intention of tackling the existing problems of low transaction success rates,
slow refunds and lack of transparency. PayZippy Consumer services was launched in
December 2013 it is essentially a prepaid wallet where credit card details will be saved
and a simple two factor authentication can be used by consumers to make online
payments
quickly
and
effectively.
Flipkart has tried to bring in incremental innovation in both services. For the merchant
side, the product aims to increase the transaction success rate to enable merchants to
have a better cash flow. In addition, the pricing system is comparable to other gateways,
but does not have any annual fee that almost every other payment gateway has. For the
consumer side, the feature is a variation on what Paypal is doing in other countries. They
have managed to gain early buy-ins from websites such as MakeMyTrip, CaratLane and
so forth. The target for consumer side was set at 1 million users by June 2014 although
the current user base is unknown.
EKart (Legal entity name unknown)
Flipkarts in-house delivery and logistics team was spun off under the brand name
eKart, although there is no specific website and the legal entity that owns eKart is
also not known. As this post goes live, all eKart delivered packages can only be
tracked on the Flipkart website, and typically for the products owned by WS
Retail. However, the service was offered to third party e-commerce websites from
February this year, starting as a pilot with just a few unknown partners. eKart
claims to have a reach of about 150 cities in India.
Flipkarts competitors too are expanding upstream and downstream. For example,
DTDC has launched a specific e-commerce related delivery service called DotZot.
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Amazon and Snapdeal provide logistics services to the sellers selling on their
platforms.
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1.4 MERITS AND DEMERITS OF FLIPKART
Recently I have been hearing of multiple complaints about the quality of the
products Flipkart is delivering and the way the customer care is behaving with the
consumers. I shall write a review on that very soon. Meanwhile below are the merits
and demerits of Flipkart.com I have observed in the last couple of years.
Merits Of Flipkart
Below are the advantages of Flipkart based on my personal experience and other
reviews read on internet.
1. Flipkart is really Indias largest online mega store. They have huge number of
products in multiple categories. I dont think there is another Indian online portal
where you can see such number categories of products. They have millions of books
available even before launching with an option of pre-ordering.
2. Flipkart has tie ups with multiple courier services and hence can deliver most of
the products to most of the areas in time. The delivery service is also professional.
Cash on Delivery option is available with a 30 day replacement warranty.
3. They have wide range of blu-ray and 3D movies, Flyte music downloads, games
available.
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4. Flipkart also launched Clothing, Sports Wear and Cosmetics range which are of
the best brands in the market.
5. Flipkart offers good discounts on many of the products available which you
hardly find on other websites.
6. Flipkart sells only good quality, branded and non-damaged products only
Demerits of Flipkart
1. They deliver products only in India. No service available outside India even if you
are willing to pay extra money. The service is not available for certain areas in India
also. You can check availability by giving the place pin code in their site.
2. The service is not upto the mark in villages when compared to the urban areas.
Sometimes
they
take
lot
of
time
to
deliver
products
in
rural
areas.
3. The minimum order for free home delivery is increased to 500/- recently while
some other sites are doing it for lesser than that.
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1.5 SWOT ANALYSIS OF FLIPKART

Strength:
Top Indian ecommerce portal Diversified into electronic goods Two VC
investment to build its own delivery system thereby reduce delivery time Cash on
delivery which is making 60% of its income
potential
Investors trust
Industry condition: very high
Services and warehousing
Payment options
Established brand
Weakness:
Coordination with suppliers and courier was tough Price biasing to maintain the
margins ( e.g. Low price for the best seller book and more price for the least
wanted) 24/7 customer care, thus even mid night is to delivered within 24 hours
Entry of international on-line competitors in Indian market Customers are not
comfortable with online payment Not profitable operationally Time to build
confidence among the customers Middle management retention issues.
Opportunities:
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Already working towards customer delight will obtain customer loyalty gradually
Supplier database interface with flipkart website for JIT procurement Mobile
internet usage is increasing there sby chances of increase in sales through mobile
shopping.
Development of m-commerce in the e-market Increasing internet
penetration Target social medias to reach young population High interest among
VC/PE.
Threats:
Small players and emerging competitor In capabilities to manage certain costs

like delivery cost, bank charges High competition from major international online
retailers
Capture of alternative market by competitors
Amazon
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Major players like
1.6 FLIPKART MARKET OVERVIEW
India has an internet user base of about 250.2 million as of June 2014. The
penetration of e-commerce is low compared to markets like the United States and
the United Kingdom but is growing at a much faster rate with a large number of
new entrants. The industry consensus is that growth is at an inflection point.
Unique to India (and potentially to other developing countries), cash on delivery
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is a preferred payment method. India has a vibrant cash economy as a result of
which 80% of Indian e- commerce tends to be Cash on Delivery. However, COD
may harm e-commerce business in India in the long run and there is a need to
make a shift towards online payment mechanisms. Similarly, direct imports
constitute a large component of online sales. Demand for international consumer
products (including long-tail items) is growing much faster than in-country supply
from authorized distributors and e-commerce offerings. India's e-commerce
market was worth about $2.5 billion in 2009, it went up to $6.3 billion in 2011
and to $14 billion in 2012. About 75% of this is travel related (airline tickets,
railway tickets, hotel bookings, online mobile recharge etc.). Online Retailing
comprises about 12.5% ($300 Million as of 2009) India has close to 10 million
online shoppers and is growing at an estimated 30% CAGR vis--vis a global
growth rate of 810%. Electronics and Apparel are the biggest categories in terms
of sales. Key drivers in Indian e-commerce are: Increasing broadband Internet
(growing at 20% MoM) and 3G penetration.
Rising standards of living and a burgeoning, upwardly mobile middle class with
high disposable incomes.
Availability of much wider product range (including long tail and Direct Imports)
compared to what is available at brick and mortar retailers
Busy lifestyles, urban traffic congestion and lack of time for offline shopping
Lower prices compared to brick and mortar retail driven by disintermediation and
reduced inventory and real estate costs
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Increased usage of online classified sites, with more consumer buying and selling
second- hand goods
India's retail market is estimated at $470 billion in 2011 and is expected to grow
to $675 billion by 2016 and $850 billion by 2020, estimated CAGR of 7%.
According to Forrester, the e- commerce market in India is set to grow the fastest
within the Asia-Pacific Region at a CAGR of over 57% between 201216. As per
"India Goes Digital", a report by Avendus Capital, a leading Indian Investment
Bank specializing in digital media and technology sector, the Indian e-commerce
market is estimated at Rs 28,500 Crore ($6.3 billion) for the year 2011. Online
travel constitutes a sizable portion (87%) of this market today. Online travel
market in India is expected to grow at a rate of 22% over the next 4 years and
reach Rs 54,800 Crore ($12.2 billion) in size by 2015. Indian e-tailing industry is
estimated at Rs 3,600 crore (US$800 mn) in 2011 and estimated to grow to Rs
53,000 Crore ($11.8 billion) in 2015. Overall e-commerce market is expected to
reach Rs 1, 07,800 crores (US$24 billion) by the year 2015 with both online travel
and e-tailing contributing equally. Another big segment in e- commerce is
mobile/DTH recharge with nearly 1 million transactions daily by operator
websites.
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1.7 MARKET SEGMENTATION
The process of defining and subdividing a large homogenous market into clearly
identifiable segments having similar needs, wants, or demand characteristics. Its
objective is to design a marketing mix that precisely matches the expectations of
customers in the targeted segment. Few companies are big enough to supply the needs of
an entire market; most must breakdown the total demand into segments and choose
those that the company is best equipped to handle. The four basic market segmentationstrategies are based on GEOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION - CATERS TO TIER 1,
TIER 2 AND TIER 3 CITIES.
DEMOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION - 75% of online users between the
age group of 15-34 years.
Flipkart targets mainly the youth of the country,
BEHAVIOURAL SEGMENTATION Web friendly people.
PSYCHOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION Flipkart concentrates on more
Psychographic, which helps in deciding where to display ads online
They target online shoppers and people who dont online shop (thus TVC to
encourage them)
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1.8 MARKET POSITIONING
An effort to influence consumer perception of a brand or product relative to the

perception of competing brands or products. Its objective is to occupy a clear, unique,
and advantageous position in the consumer's mind. Points of parity:
Easy locating of products Competitive prices.
No hassles of going to shops personally and shop for products
Availability of various products on one platform
Discount on purchases.
Home delivery
Gifting services
Cash on delivery
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Availability of liquor
Flipifts
Academic related books Points of Difference:
Flipkart membership cards for premium customers
Vernacular language
Better user interface-one drag approach
1.9 MAJOR COMPETITORS
Amazon.com is an American international electronic commerce company with

headquarters in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest internet
company, based on revenue and number of employees. Snapdeal.com is an online
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marketplace, headquartered in New Delhi, India. The company was started by Kunal
Bahl and Rohit Bansal, in February 2010. eBay Inc., is an American multinational
corporation and e-commerce company, providing consumer-to-consumer sales services
via Internet. It is headquartered in San Jose, California, United States. HomeShop18 is
an online and on-air retail and distribution venture of Network 18 Group, India.
HomeShop18 was launched on 9 April 2008 as India's first 24-hour Home Shopping TV
channel. Yebhi.com is an Indian Online shopping E-commerce portal for Home,
Lifestyle & Fashion e- retailer, launched in the year 2009.
CHAPTER 2: OBJECCTIVES OF STUDY

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Objectivestelluswhyprojecthasbeentakenunderstudy.Ithelpsustoknowmore
aboutthetopicthatisbeingundertakenandhelpsustoexplorefutureprospectsofthat
organization.Basicallyittellsuswhatallhavebeenstudiedwhilemakingtheproject.
To know the strategy adopted by Flipkart in this new era

To understand Flipkart strategy and their competition
To study how Flipkart is the leading shopping app in India
To know what is difference between Flipkart shopping and other
shopping site
To know Whether common people are convenient by purchasing product
from Flipkart
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CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 PRIMARY DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONS
I have taken survey of some people living in my society
regarding the most leading online shopping website
Flipkart which is shown with the help of graphs below.
1. How often do you purchase from Flipkart?
Most of male gender purchase from flipkart and female shop less
from flipkart compared to male
2. How often do you purchase from Flipkart?

Most of people purchase when offer zone is going on and
most of shopping is done foe electronics
3. How do come to know about Flipkart
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People come to know about Flipkart by different means
like most come to know by Advertisement, Newspaper,
Newspaper and Magazine,etc.
4. What category of products do you purchase from
Flipkart?
Most of them purchase electronics because it is trustable
Following is the my experience shared with shopping by
Flipkart
First when I purchased from flipkart my experience
was awesome with it
I bought the quality product
After that I always shop from Flipkart and
recommend it to others also
As I have seen that offers on Flipkart comes with an
best deals for us.
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As per my experience Flipkart is best for shopping
and best customer service.
3.2 SECONDARY DATA
o Advertisements Used in Newspapers and
Magazines:
Newspaper advertising works on the fundamental of building trust and confidence with
the readers.
Newspapers have the greatest impact because of the following reasons:
1. Experts say the greater the exposure of the advertisement, the longer is the period of
its impact among the readers. Therefore experts feel if an advertisement stays in the
memory of a consumer for a longer time, chances are quite probable that he might opt
for purchasing or availing your services as and when required. This counts for higher
sales and brand awareness.
2. A newspaper reader is so involved in his reading that sometimes the content in the
advertisements creates an emotional impact on him. It is this power of being able to
evoke an emotional response with the reader that goes in favor of newspaper advertising.
3. In other media, especially online media, people get perturbed by the distractions in
the form of pop-ups and other advertisement forms that keep flashing on and off the
screen. In fact experts points out that instead of having any favorable impact, these ads
serve to distract the readers. However newspapers, point out experts, involves a focused
reading where there are no disturbing and unwanted flashes of advertisements. As there
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is no distance between the reader and the story it seems that the reader actually
undergoes all the emotions in the story himself, leading to increase in the trust factor.
Taking advantage of this trust quotient, advertisers cash on newspapers to send their
messages loud and clear among the readers.
Hence, Flipkart has used advertisements in newspapers and magazines which are
colorful, bright; most of the images consist of kids, and have clear messages. Here are
some of the advertisements used by Flipkart in Newspapers and Magazines.
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o Online Advertising
The number of internet users is on a rapid rise worldwide and is used by people of all
age and types. Internet has become a major medium for communication, entertainment
and is in the process of replacing traditional entertainment, promo products, and
informative Medias. Some businesses are finding that handing out a promo product such
as pens, business cards, and mugs are too costly and yield little results. Likewise,
traditional marketing forms such as television, radio, newspaper, magazines, etc., are
becoming a thing of the past.
Internet has also become a major and effective medium for advertising and it has be
predicted that the online advertising and marketing is soon going to replace the
advertising through traditional medias such as television, radio, newspaper and
magazines. I have picked around 10 advantages of online advertising (not in that order)
when compared with the traditional offline advertising.
1.Wider Coverage :
The online advertising gives your ads a wider coverage and this globally wider coverage
helps in making your advertisements reach more audiences, which may ultimately help
you in getting better results through your online advertising campaign.
2. Targeted Audiences when compared with offline advertising, online advertising

always helps you to reach the targeted audience and this helps in making your campaign
more profitable and getting more relevant leads.
3. Affordable
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Another main advantage of online advertising or marketing is the much affordable price
when compared with the traditional advertising costs. With a much lesser cost you can
advertise on the net for a wider range of audience and geographical locations.
4. Easy to Track and Measure Conversion

Measurability and easiness to track the conversion makes online advertising miles ahead
on the traditional advertising methods. A lot of effective analytics tools are available to
measure online advertising campaigns which help in more improvisation of the ads.
5. Speed
Online advertising is much faster than offline advertising and you can start sending out
your ads to a wider audience, the moment you start your advertising campaign.
6. Informative
In online advertising, the advertiser is able to convey more details about the
advertisement to the audience and that too at relatively low cost. Most of the online
advertising campaigns are composed of a clickable link to a specific landing page, where
users get more information about the product mentioned in the ad.
7. Flexible Payment
Payment flexibility is another added advantage of online advertising and marketing. In
offline advertising you need to pay the full amount to the advertising agency irrespective
of the results. But in online advertising there is the flexibility of paying for only
qualified leads, clicks or impressions.
8. Better ROI
Since online advertising is mainly focused on performance based payment, you ROI is
sure to be far better when compared with offline advertising.
9. Easy Audience Engagement

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Online advertisement makes is easy for the audience to engage with your ads or
products. As an advertiser we would be able to get more feedback from the audience and
thereby improve the quality of our ads going forward.
10. Better Branding

Any form of advertising helps in improving the branding and online advertising stands a
notch high in improving the branding of your company, service or product.
Flipkart being an online mega store advertises its products and the offers in different
internet sites, screenshots of which are being shown below
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o Tweets about Flipkart
Flipkart stays connected with its users via twitter, they answer most of the queries put
up by their customers and carefully evaluate all the suggestions which were posted in the
twitter which keeps the customers happy and in turn keep the management of Flipkart
happy. Some of the tweets are shown below:
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CHAPTER 4: MARKETING STRATEGY OF FLIPKART

Flipkart eCommerce marketing strategies 2016
I think all types of businesses can learn from their
digital business strategy. From startups and small businesses to large local businesses,
their focus on the
customer, testing market opportunities made available by digital technology and their
focus on testing and
analysis to improve results. This digital marketing strategies works for 2015, 2016, 2017
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About Flipkart.com
Flipkart is Worlds top 10 most visited Ecommerce
website in India with regards to traffic. Multiple
Payment method is available for its customers to make Payment easier. Fastest growing
ecommerce
website in India.
Flipkart started back in 2007 with online book selling. After that it entered the
telecommunication
category by launching mobile phones. Since then it has rapidly grown to other verticals.
The reason for
Flipkart being so popular is due its innovative features like cash on delivery where after
the customer gets
the delivery of the good he/she can check the good and make the payment on cash.
The Story Behind FLIPKART.COM marketing strategies 2016

There was the huge risk taken by both the Bansals Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal .
(Started with
selling of books ). They both got a high profile job in the worlds biggest ecommerce
website named
Amazon. Leaving Amazon to start their own company with just Rs 4 Lakhs involved a
huge risk as there
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was no guarantee that their idea would Succeed or not. It was a result of risk taking only
that today
Flipkart generates 1.5 cr a day.
The online store has spread to multiple categories namely they are Books, music,
mobiles, computers,
cameras ,home and kitchen applications, TV and home theatre systems, Personal and
healthcare products
and stationary items as well.
I aim to keep this case study uptodate
for readers who may be interested. In it we look at
Flipkarts background, revenue model and sources for the latest business results.
We can also learn from their approach to digital marketing since they use digital
marketing efficiently
across all customer communications touch points in our RACE marketing planning
framework:
Reach: Flipkarts initial business growth based on detailed approach to SEO and
AdWords targeting
millions of keywords.
Act: Creating a clear simple experiences through testing and learning.

Convert: Using personalisation to make relevant recommendations and a clear
checkout process that
many now imitate.
Engage:Their focus on customer experience, Customer Obsession as they call it is

shown by the way
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39

they consistently outperform other retailers in their ACSI customer satisfaction rating
too.
Flipkart business and revenue model

I recommend anyone studying Flipkart checks the latest Flipkart revenue and business
strategies from
their SEC filings / Investor relations. The annual filings to give a great summary of eBay
business and
revenue models.
A good summary of the latest business model initiatives is always available in the latest
Flipkart annual
report summary. The latest report includes a great vision for Digital Agility (reprinted
from 2014 in their
CHAPTER 5: COMPARISON OF FLIPKART

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40
5.1
COMPARISON BETWEEN FLIPKART AND AMAZON: DEALS AND
SHOPPING EXPERIENCE
Years ago when Flipkart was into the online retail business, it only had to worry
about its local competitors from the nation like Infibeam and Homeshop18.
However, with the recent entry of Amazon into India as Amazon India, it seems
customers finally have a choice and Flipkart actually has a game to play. Which is
better? Scroll down.
Twenty years ago the word 'shopping' meant going out of your house, maybe to a
shopping complex, a store or a mall, select the goods you like, pay for the same and then
check out instantly. Twenty years down the line everything seems changed, upside
down. Today 'shopping' comes with two adjectives serving the very word as options:
'online' and 'in-store'.
Today, to buy anything we think twice. Whether we should buy from a store nearby or
check out the whole bunch of options available online is a matter of great confusion for
us. The good part of the whole scene is that today the typical customer/user is has so
many options available just a few clicks away. If you want to buy a new laptop you don't
need to go to that boring retailer's shop anymore and tolerate him making you wait for
another hour because you've never bought a laptop from him, only blank DVDs and
stuff. On the other hand, the retailers' fraternity are running at a huge loss and it is likely
to happen that sooner or later no one in the society would consider opening a store again
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because the future is at great stake because of the big hats. However, leaving all that
aside in the name of 'business' ideas and 'right to profit', we are going to discuss and
compare two big giants in the online retail world of India Flipkart and Amazon India.
Flipkart vs. Amazon: Compare eCommerce sites

Before we proceed any further and lay out our conclusions, the question is why we are
comparing Flipkart and Amazon. Why not look at the broader picture and include more
rivals like Homeshop18, Infibeam etc. The reason is Amazon is a foreign company and
practically world's largest in the field of online retailership. Their entry into the Indian
market is a recent news and before their entry our undefeated champion from the locals
was Flipart. Is Amazon India going to enter our markets and defeat the most popular
online retail company of India because of its age long experience or will Flipkart be able
to defend its goodwill in the market, stand the competition in a dominative manner and
will tell the world no breaching our gates?
Well, we cannot foresee the future very much but we sure can lay out our views,
comparing the two hulks.
History and Foundation - Whenever discussing about any business or industry,
discussing the history seems sensible. It is not an unknown fact that in the field of online
retailership, Amazon was the first one to come and tap the button. It took Amazon years
because it actually made some real profit out of the business. Surely, they have much
more substance when it comes to experience. On the other hand, the creators of the
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Indian banner, the Bansals are products of IIT Delhi and before they actually started
Flipkart, they had worked in Amazon for a few years. It wouldn't be wrong to say that
the creators of Flipkart drew experience from the very company they are competing
today. Now, the question is whether experience enough can beat the intellect and
intelligence of two engineering minds from the best technology institute of the nation?
Risks and Backup - Talk about who has more to lose in the battle of sales figures. Well,
surely Flipkart. The reason why we're putting forward this argument is the fact that
Flipkart does only one kind of business, which is that of online retailership. Besides just
more experience, on the other hand, Amazon is backed up by more business streams
which it's been successfully carrying out. Let's take the example of Amazon Web
Services, which is known to be generating a lot of revenue for the company. Even if it
loses its hand in the Indian market to its main rival Flipkart, it does not have too much to
lose.
Amazon Drones and other Innovations - It is a recent buzz according to which
Amazon is busy building (or has probably built) drones to increase its business. Sooner
or later drones will be acting as your local delivery boy and will be delivering goods at
your footsteps and giving online retailership just another level. So, you don't have to
worry too much anymore whether the person delivering goods to your address is
confused at how to find your address. Who knows? Maybe Amazon someday makes it
possible: a customer wishing to get delivered a set of books merely has to locate his
house on Google maps and a flying machine comes with the stuff you ordered.
Books - Both the companies started their journeys and turned out popular but how did
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they start? Both the brands are known to have started their travails with books. Books
was what Amazon began with and it was what Flipkart targeted to achieve first when
they were nothing but a warehouse. However, talking about books, it is a popular
opinion that Amazon is cheaper dealing with when it comes to books. Not only does it
involve less shipping charges, it has more seller options usually.
Model of working - Comparing Flipkart and Amazon, one can dig out the old pages and
the new and can infer that both the companies had started with their own warehouse but
today, both follow the common similar marketplace model. However, talking about the
same, Flipkart and Amazon India are known to be sharing a difference which is again
about books. While Flipkart enjoys putting its warehouses into good use when it comes
to stocking books, Amazon likes to continue working in the trend it enjoys that is, with
the marketplace model.
Presentation - Now, do we really need to put up our own opinion about the presentation
and looks of both the brands? While the website of Flipkart is presented with the use of
bright colors and beautiful buttons, Amazon lags much behind in the name of
presentation and colours, if not in anything else.
Amazon Kindle - Now, Amazon has an extra advantage, the advantage of technology,
invention and innovation. We all know about the Amazon Kindle. And in case you do
not, Amazon Kindle is an ebook reader specially designed by Amazon for enabling its
customers buy ebooks from Amazon and read on the Kindle. Kindle is blessed with
charged ink technology and does not use the normal LED/LCD displays, hence reducing
the strain on the eye to an extent, it almost pushes you to buy the ebook instantly for
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your Kindle. And anyway, ebooks come at much lower price than the hard copies of
books. Not only do they save paper, it seems they are the future of reading. On the other
hand, Flipkart doesn't seem to be doing that awesomely when it comes to the sale of
ebooks. Definitely, Flipkart has not been of much use when it comes to invention. They
do not have something like the Kindle of their own and it doesn't seem likely to be in
near future either.
Amazon's Google App Store - Now this is just brains, not too much technology, not
another 'invention'. Besides trying its hands on all other kinds of business, Amazon has
its own collection of Google App Store products which you can purchase and download.
Flipkart does not have a business of this kind.
Ease-of-Use and Convenience - When it comes to ease of use and convenience, we do
not hesitate to vote up the brand from the nation. Flipkart does have a very appreciable
and convenient way for the typical customer. Log on to the Amazon India website and
all you find is a confusing set of links. You do not understand where to click and where
to not. Besides, if a user wants to order something at Amazon India, let's say a book, he
cannot do it just like that. One needs to have a user account at Amazon, separately
registered by the user. This kind of rudeness is something which the Flipkart people
haven't shown. If you have a Facebook or Google account, all you need to do is use your
credentials, feed in the details and place your order. There is no need to create a special
Flipkart account, registering separately for the same (even though you could, if you
really want to).
Amazon has a lot of stuff like Prime Membership and a lot of more confusing booty
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traps which Flipkart choses to avoid. Even the search facility on Flipkart was something
we greatly admired.
Same Day Delivery - Recently after its entry into the Indian retailosphere, Amazon
India came out with something called 'same day delivery'. According to this plan, if you
are a customer and are so desperate to get the products you ordered that you want them
delivered on the same day, you can enjoy this facility. All you have to do is pay an extra
fee of Rs. 99. But recently, even Flipkart launched the same feature; however the better
bet here is because you have to shell out Rs. 9 less. You need to place your order before
6 pm and the order will be delivered to you within the same day. If however you place
your order (on Flipkart) after 6 pm, your product(s) will be delivered only the next day.
So, when comparing Amazon and Flipkart on same day delivery services, both offer
pretty much good services.
Delivery Manners - There's a subtle change in the manner both the companies. Let's say
you order two things a book and a movie DVD. It may be possible that you receive
your book the next day by Amazon and the DVD may arrive a few days later if the seller
takes more time to ship it. However, the same is not usually true with Flipkart. What
Flipkart will do is it will ship the two products together, in the same package and will
most likely make you wait. While some favour Flipart's shipping habits, the others
believe Amazon India does it better. Some may like the responsibility Amazon takes by
shipping the product as soon as it can reach the customers, some believe Flipkart
understands how a person expects his products to come all together, keeping things
simple. While some say that Flipkart does this to save its expense on shipping the
package, some opine that Amazon too saves its expense by avoiding any midway
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intervention in the delivery process.
Selling your product - A mere look at Amazon India's top left area will let you to the
'sell' page. It elaborates the user as to how he/she can actually sell his product on
Amazon India without going through an elaborate process to get his business listed in
the website.
Conclusion: Which is eCommerce service is better - Amazon or Flipkart
Any business starts and advances because of many virtues. One of them is public
goodwill. Over the years, Flipkart has earned a lot of that in India but then Amazon
cannot be overlooked just because it's new in India. It cannot be ignored that they
know how this system works. They understand this business as they are the
trendsetters. While Flipkart seems to be giving Amazon a tough go in India, Amazon
is trying its bets. Flipkart offers you simplicity, beauty and ease of convenience,
Amazon offers you a promise which comes to it through the expertise. Amazon has
readymade advantages like Amazon Kindle, other revenue sources and easily
approachable system, it seems as though it is trying to play rude with people who
want to buy products from its market by compelling to open up their own accounts in
Amazon even when almost everyone has a Facebook account and can easily use the
same to place the order. Flipkart seems to understand that a user comes to it to buy
products and not to buy its tantrums.
It would be too early to decide which of the two is going to dominate the Indian
markets, but one things is sure: Flipkart is going to have a tough time if it does not
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keep up.
5.2 Amazon v/s Flipkart v/s Amazon

In the 90s we saw the dot com boom; do we perceive the e-commerce sector growth
in India with the same hype? Well, its booming for sure but what happens next is yet
to be seen. The intense competition in this space, especially among the top 3 players
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is good for the consumers. Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal, all of them have raised
investments or have commitments of $1 Billion or more. All 3 work on a
marketplace model but have some areas where they excel or differ from one another
as to be able to grow rapidly in a short span of time is the real aim. Flipkart follows
an invite-only model to sign on sellers which is more time-consuming. Note that
Amazon doesn't sell, but it is a glorified marketplace, for now; competing with Ebay
in that space; whilst Flipkart has also launched a similar service. Not to forget other
promising entities like Yebhi, Quickr which are also making a shout-in in other
categories. In the classifieds sector the Indian based Quickr is facing stiff
competition from the OLX.
When and who will come out as the outright winner and why? Compare the data
below.
Initially, before Amazon entered the Indian market, the industry had several players
Flipkart, Myntra, Snapdeal, Let's Buy, India Times Shopping, Fashion and You and
others. With huge funding coming from foreign investors like Softbank to huge VCs
betting on them, the big fish, the piranhas started consolidating and eating up
(acquiring) smaller players like Let's Buy, Urban Touch etc.
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Present scenario in Amazon vs Flipkart vs Snapdeal
Market share of these sharks has increased considerably. The three major
Players are Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal. We cant envisage any new player
emerging from the mirage.
The sharks have now become bigger for the ocean as Flipkart acquired Myntra.
Money is being poured in at an alarming rate. As Flipkart announced a $1 billion
financing, Amazon decided to steal Filpkart's thunder by announcing that it would
invest $2 billion in its Indian entity. Tapping the maximum possible market is the
key & obviously demographics are a factor.
The final Scenario Only 2 major players left. Flipkart and Amazon have to survive
this. Snapdeal has an outside shot. Flipkart will go for an IPO in either US or
Singapore (* Flipkart files to become a public company ). E-commerce will
eventually drive towards profitability though, the smaller sharks will be eaten up by
the bigger ones, either via acquisitions - or we'd see plenty of mid-size sharks
forming alliances.
The online commerce market in India has a very low penetration. We haven't even
begun to scorch the surface here in terms of potential. India does something around
$3 billion a year in Commerce; whilst China does something around $100+ billion
major due to the Jack Ma led Alibaba which recently got listed on NYSE (*Alibaba
valuation analysis ).
As of today, the biggest player in this market is Flipkart, followed by the rest.
Amazon has covered a good percentage of market in a short time, but the race has
just started & Flipkarts already some paces ahead, for now. Flipkart's investors
knew that the real e-commerce battle in India was not Flipkart versus Infibeam or
Snapdeal. They knew even before the launch of Amazon.in that the real contender
was Amazon.
Amazon Indias sales are estimated at over $200 million (Rs 1,200 crore). It took
flipkart 7 years to achieve the sales numbers, snapdeal expects to reach it this year
while amazon might clock Rs 6,000 crore by the end of March 2016.
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Face-off
India's biggies, Wipro's Azim Premji and Infosys' N R Narayana Murthy, have placed
their bets on the burgeoning $3-billion e-commerce market space too. Azim Premji
has sided with Myntra (acquired by flipkart) & Snapdeal while Narayana Murthy has
placed his faith on Amazon.There's not going to be one clear winner considering the
funds these firms are pooling in. Over the next few years, each of these companies
will find a niche that they'd dominate, and go for aggressive expansion. And India is
a huge market, and whosoever scales faster the better. It has become a three-headed
race. But everyone is just as well equipped to scale as fast as anyone; so then it will
all boil down to branding, and management. The fight is not just about logistics but
also about penetration, eventually though all boils down to the revenue.The market is
too big, and a large amount of population is yet to put internet to productive use; we
can see the internet of things put to work to a huge-ass market like India. However,
the concept of IOT is yet not established as compared to the developed markets. In
the next 5 years, the landscape will completely change. Flipkart and Snapdeal will
diversify in other sectors and will no longer be just an e-commerce site. Just how
Amazon has invested in Kindle, cloud services etc. Flipkart had started a payment
called Payzippy; though it didn't work out for them. They are trying to expand across
various channels that'll add to their revenue.
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CHAPTER 6: SUGGESSION AND CONCLUSION
SUGGESTION:
Flipkart has successfully placed itself into the prospects mind making it the Indias
largest online store with huge range of products. But Flipkart still needs to work on their
core competence that is books and stationery items. With the entry of Amazon.com it
will be a huge competitive market for Flipkart and hence will have to position itself
better, as we still see that huge percentage of females are still unaware of Flipkart. Those
female who purchase, has a very less frequency which has remained unchanged.
Therefore they need to get aggressive at providing better services which can be fulfilled
by reducing the delivery time, selling second hand products which will increase
consumers affordability much more and enhance penetration into the market. They can
even have their retail stores which can give an access to consumers to feel and analyze
the products, which will help them win the consumers faith. Price will still be a factor as
amazon being a huge company will use its economies of scale to remove their
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competitors from the market; therefore they need to be more competitive on that aspect.
Be very focused on consumers and build amazing experiences for the customers
Conclusion
A credible rival can do wonders to an enterprise and Flipkart is no different. The entry of
Amazon in India has enabled Flipkart develop a lot of in-house innovation and
organically developed best-practices - that have now become the industry standard.
Flipkart began operations on the consignment model; goods were procured from
suppliers on demand, based on the orders received through the website. Later, the booksto-electronics e-shop adopted the warehouse model. The company had its own
warehouses, and maintained its own inventory. However in July 2013, Flipkart launched
its model of marketplace just one month after Amazon launched its marketplace in India.
It introduced payments brand PayZippy for online merchants and customers seeking
fast, hassle- free and safe payment options. Some 70 per cent of its shipments are done
by its own logistics company and about half of deliveries are on a cash-on-delivery
basis. Flipkart has recently introduced the next day guarantee delivery service and
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shopping from its own mobile application. Given the critical mass of transactions
Flipkart controls - about 100,000 a day - the company is betting that it has the volumes
to lay the foundation of what will be a profitable business. Last but not the least; Flipkart
has very clearly prioritized customer delight as its chief avenue for customer acquisition
and retention. This causes them to build a lot of slack into their existing systems causing
higher costs at several points in the supply chain. How they address this challenge is
what will determine their future success.
CHAPTER 7: BIBLOGRAPHY
www.wikipedia.com
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CHAPTER 7: ANNEXTURE
Please tick the age group you belong to.

16-25
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55

25-35
35-50
50 or above
1. Gender
Male
Female
2. Please tick your occupation
Salaried Professional
Salaried senior/ junior executive
Business
Student
Unskilled
Others, please specify ________
3. Please tick your income range
Less than Rs.2 lakhs per annum
Rs.2 to Rs.5 lakhs per annum
More than 10 lakhs per annum
4. Please tick your education as relevant
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Post graduate
Graduate
Higher secondary school certificate
High School certificate
Less than 12 years in school
5. How frequently do you shop through e-commerce websites
Most Likely
Very likely
Not likely
I never shop online
6. Are you aware of Flipkart an ecommerce website
Yes
No
7. Which is your most preferred e-commerce website
Flipkart
Jabong
Snapdeal
Others, please specify___________
I do not use e-commerce websites
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8. Please rate the user friendliness of the e-commerce website which you prefer the
most (1-5, excellent to very poor)
For product comparison
For price comparison
Payment options offered
Speed of website
9. How frequently have you used the ecommerce website for getting information
before shopping at a physical store (always, most often, often, quite rarely, rarely,
never)
Product specifications
Price comparison among products
10.Please rate your expectations in a shopping model (in a scale of 1 5, Least
preferred to most preferred)
Convenience
Minimum delivery time
Product trial experience
Discounts/ deals
Product variety
11.Tick all the product varieties that you generally prefer buying online
Clothing
Personal products (perfumes, beauty creams, razors, toothbrush)
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Mobiles/ tablets
Laptops and accessories
Cameras
Books
Digital products
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