Topic: Online Shopping (flipkart.com)Research and Management

Contents

1. Introduction.2. History.3. Business Financial Results.4. Products.5. Location.6. Current Development.7. Marketing Strategies.

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8. Upcoming Strategies & Planning.9. Policies of Flipkart.com.10. Privacy Policy.11. Terms & Condition.12. Swot Analysis.13. Conclusion.14. References.

Flipkart.comIntroduction

Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce company headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka. It was founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in 2007. In its initial years, Flipkart fo cused 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, e-gift voucher, and the major of all Cash on Delivery. The cash-on-delivery model adopted by Flipkart has proven to be of great significance since credit card and net banking penetration is very low in India.

History

Flipkart was founded in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, both alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. They worked for Amazon.com before quitting and founding their own company. Initially they used word of mouth marketing to popularise their company. A few months later, the company sold its first book on flipkart.com―John Woods' Leaving Microsoft to Change the World. Today, as per Alexa traffic rankings, Flipkart is among the top 20 Indian Web sites and has been credited with being India's largest online bookseller with over 11 million titles on offer. Flipkart claims to have had at least 100% growth every quarter since its founding.The store started with selling books and in 2010 branched out to selling CDs, DVDs, mobile phones and accessories, cameras, computers, computer accessories and peripherals, and in 2011, pens & stationery, other electronic items such as home appliances, kitchen appliances, personal care gadgets, health care products etc. Further in 2012, Flipkart added A.C, air coolers, school supplies, office supplies, art supplies & life style products to its product portfolio. As of today, Flipkart employs more than 4500 people.

Business Financial results

Flipkart's reported sales were 40 million in FY 2008–2009, 200 million in FY 2009–2010 and 750 million for FY 2010–2011. In FY 2011–2012, 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. Flipkart projects its sales to reach US$10 billion by year 2014. On average, Flipkart sells nearly 20 products per minute and is aiming at generating a revenue of 50 billion (US$1 billion) by 2015.

PRODUCTS

Flipkart started with selling books. In 2010, they added to their catalogue media (includ ing 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. In 2012, product launches includes health & beauty products, Life style products which includes watches, belts, bags & luggage.

In November 2011, Flipkart launched a new Electronic Wallet feature that allows shop pers to purchase credit to their Flipkart account using credit or debit cards, and can subse quently be utilised to make purchases on the site, as and when required. From June 2012, Flipkart allowed people to buy toys, posters and from October 2012, Flipkart entered into apparel retailing.

LOCATION

The company's headquarters is located in Bangalore's Koramangala neighborhood. Flip kart has offices, warehouses and customer service centers across India. Warehouses are located in the following cities, often near airports. From here on, Flipkart delivers the products to 95 cities which includes 2500 pin codes across India through its own logis tics.

1. Bangalore, Karnataka 2. Whitefield, Bangalore, Karnataka 3. Delhi 4. Bhiwandi , Maharashtra 5. Mumbai , Maharashtra 6. Hyderabad , Andhra Pradesh 7. Chennai , Tamil Nadu 8. Coimbatore , Tamil Nadu 9. Noida , Uttar Pradesh 10. Kolkata , West Bengal

Current Developments

The company is expanding its courier service network to deliver products quickly, and to extend the COD option to most of the Indian parts as well. Recently the company started Flipkart Self delivery to offer faster shipping times. With the new delivery system cus tomers can now track their orders in real time in Flipkart's website itself.

Marketing Strategies

1. Analyzing the Client Brief and/or any other problem which might be a cause of concern.

2. Situation Analysis. 3. Consumer Insights4. Branding- Idea Creation.5. Media Plan.6. Measuring Effectiveness of Campaign.7. Brand Association.

Upcoming Strategies and Planning

For Immediate Release (Free-Press-Release.com) March 24, 2012 -- In Feb-2012 Flipkart.com acquired Lets buy.com for an estimated $25 million (Rs.125 crore). There were a number of speculation surrounding the deal with many saying it was due to VC pressure (both shared the same investor Helion& Tiger) to save the ailing Lets buy while so mean alyzing that the move would plant Flipkart in the online electronics commerce firmly which it is struggling to breakthrough for a while with Lets buy being the leader in this space. Also, this would ensure that other upcoming players like Snap deal, Yebhi, TIL properties, Smile Group ventures will stand very little to none chance to complete with now mightier than before Flipkart in the Indian eCommerce Space where everyone is fighting to get the biggest Pie.

Policies of Flipkart.comCancellations & Returns

1. Flipkart’s return policy.2. Flipkart’s return policy for clothing and footwear.3. Return a defective or damaged product for a new

replacement.4. Exchange a clothing or footwear product If

customer is not satisfied.5. Cancellation and refund policy for Flyte eBooks.6. Modes of refund available after cancellation Policy.

Privacy Policy

1 .Collection of Personally Identifiable Information and other Information.

2. Use of Demographic / Profile Data / Your Information.3. Sharing of personal information.4. Links to Other Sites.5. Security Precautions.6. Choice/Opt-Out.7. Advertisements on Flipkart.com.8. Grievance Officer.

Terms & ConditionsOperating Agreement

1. Enrollment in the Program.2. Links on Your Site.3. Order Processing.4. Referral Fees.5. Referral Fee Schedule.6. Referral Fee Payment.7. Policies and Pricing.8. Identifying Yourself as an Associate.9. Limited License.

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10. Responsibility for Your Site.11. Compliance with Laws..12. Term of the Agreement.13. Modification.14. Relationship of Parties.15. Limitation of Liability.16. Disclaimers.17. Independent Investigation.18. Disputes.

Swot AnalysisSTRENGTHS

1. Brand recognition: Flipkart.com is synonym of sales online and their services are focused on customers’ satisfaction, for example one can observe this particular strength in the most recent release of Flipkart.com: “the kindle” digital book reader, where one can store up to 200 books. In its two first days the kindle has ran out of stock, despite the fact that it is not the first digital book reader into the market.

2. The business model: the model has the advantage of increasing revenues without incurring highly direct costs.

3. Diversification: the variety of products that Flipkart.com offers in different geographical markets suggests a large stability into the e- commerce field.

4. Business evolution: during the past year’s Flipkart.com has continually reinvented their services, increasing their value.

WEAKNESSES

1. Strategies based on low prices: the best attraction of Flipkart.com is low prices and although it has worked, customers could be attracted by others stores that could provide better deals.

2. Distribution: increase the variety of products and geographical position may present numerous difficulties in the distribution.

3. Growth: the growing of Flipkart.com is not the best, except by extraordinary events such as Harry Potter releases or the most recent audio book reader.

4. Delivering: all along Flipkart.com has offered free delivering in order to gain customers, nonetheless this strategy is expensive and not necessary stable. Flipkart.com makes people wait days to receive books that they can obtain instantly from their neighbourhood bookstores.

Conclusion

1. Flipkart, the first billion dollar Internet company from India(going by 2015 estimates )is by far the leading online store in the nation.

2. Now that Amazon is reportedly entering India in early 2012, this news becomes even more significant, considering that Amazon has previously, and unsuccessfully, tried acquiring the company, with Flipkart demanding a very high buyout price.

3. With online retail industry in India pegged to reach $1.5 billion (2015), sources suggest that e-commerce is just hotting up in India and we may soon seen many more Internet companies achieving similar success.

References

1.Wikipedia.2. The Next Web.3. Flipkart Site (http://www.flipkart.com/about-us)4. Magazines.

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