Varun Athreya (1RV09IT065)Department of IT, RVCE

Contents

Intro Founders Flipkart Story Evolution of Logos Funding Acquisitions Why flipkart? Order Lifecycle Conclusion and References

Intro

Flipkart went live in 2007 with the objective of making books easily available to anyone who had internet access. They’re present across various categories including movies, music, games, mobiles, cameras, computers, healthcare and personal products, home appliances and electronics – and still counting!

With over 11.5 million book titles, 11 different categories, more than 2 million registered users and sale of 30000 items a day, they’re one of the leading e-commerce players in the country.

Their success is largely due to their obsession with providing customers a memorable online shopping experience. Be it Cash on Delivery, a 30-day replacement policy, EMI options, free shipping - and of course the great prices that they offer. Then there's dedicated Flipkart delivery team that works round the clock to personally make sure packages reach on time. For now they're present in 27 lucky cities, but don't worry, plans are underway to spread to many others.

Founders

Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal

About Founders

Sachin Bansal CEO and Co-founder Sachin spent his early years in Chandigarh. He graduated

from IIT-Delhi with a degree in Computer Engineering. In 2006 he joined Amazon.com in India which he later left to set-up Flipkart.

As CEO, Sachin oversees all the customer facing activities of the company ranging from technology to marketing. He is also in charge of Flipkart's corporate divisions which include the finance and legal departments.

An avid gaming enthusiast, Sachin likes to spend most of his free time with his family

About founders

Binny Bansal COO and Co-founder Born and raised in Chandigarh, Binny went on to get a

degree in Computer Engineering from IIT Delhi. He had a brief stint at Amazon before taking the entrepreneurial plunge with Flipkart.

At Flipkart, Binny oversees all operational activities that come into play from the time the customer places an order till the time of delivery. This spans across divisions like warehousing, logistics and customer support.

A big fan of Salman Rushdie as well as Stieg Larsson's 'Millennium' series, Binny is also passionate about soccer and NBA. An active sportsman, he used to captain his school basketball and soccer teams.

Flipkart Story

Flipkart,was established by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal both are alumni of Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and worked for Amazon.com before quitting and founding their own company.

Initially they used word of mouth to popularise their company. Within two years through word of mouth of their services, Flipkart became one of the top 100 Indian sites and was credited for being India's largest online bookseller with over 10 million titles on offer.

Flipkart broke even in March 2010 and claims to have had at least 100% growth every quarter since its founding.

Flipkart employs over 3000 people.

Contd..

Also it had experienced 2 million unit sales and 4 million unique vistors per month with sales growing at 25% per month, eyeing a $50 million run rate as reported by TechCrunch.

It’s been about a year since Flipkart started moving from being a pure bookstore to selling mobiles/DVDs etc. Since then, Flipkart went for a major brand makeover, making it look more ‘upmarket’.

There has been large newspaper ads, TVCs and a lot of web ads.

Evolution of Logos

Funding

Initially funded by the Bansals themselves with 4 Lakh(INR).

Flipkart has since then raised two rounds of funding from venture capital funds Accel India (in 2009) and Tiger Global Management (up to the tune of US$10 million) (in 2010).

Private equity firms Carlyle and General Atlantic are in talks to jointly invest about $150 million to $200 million in Flipkart, according to sources.

Aquisitions

2010: “We Read”, 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: Acquired the rights to Chakpak’s digital catalogue which includes 40,000 filmographies, 10,000 movies and close to 50,000 ratings. Chakpak.com is a Bollywood news site that offers updates, news, photos and videos.

Screenshot..

Why flipkart?

Discoverablity SEO    “We Do Not Sell Used Books” tagline.  “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....” 

Why flipkart?

Payment cash on delivery.,.. auto redirection to banking site... Inventory... Not like only when an order is placed

they get the product.The products are all there in the godown. When u order u get it after the specified number of days. Strictly abide by “never promise something that u don't have” rule.

Why Flipkart?

Delivery..  Most similar looking envelopes are never delivered

thinking that it is a marketing package and no one would track it. They would be willing to bargain on rates but would never say anything about the service. Paying a premium may not solve the problem always.

Flipkart is seen delivering through their own delivery boys in Bangalore and at times within 12hrs from order.

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.

Why flipkart?

Flipkart has offices, warehouses and customer service centers across India. Warehouses are located in the following cities, often near airports.

Bangalore Chennai Delhi Hyderabad Mumbai Noida Pune Kolkata

Contd…

Flipkart has added a prepaid Wallet feature to its e-commerce platform that allows shoppers to store money on the site and use it to purchase items, without having to reach for their credit card for each transaction, according to a MediaNama report.

Contd..

Order Lifecycle

Attract users to the site Family, Friends, SEO, SEM,WoM, Brand Building Provide selection Make it easy to Find & Discover products Provide details to evaluate a product Description, Specifications, UGC Price well Have to be competitive to the most obvious

options Provide convenient payment options Online, COD Confirm payment

Order Lifecycle(contd)

Get the item Procure from Supplier (Just-in-time) (Supplier selection) Keep Inventory (Inventory Prediction, Planning)

Clean & Check for sanity Pages missing, MRP printed lesser than told to you

Pack the item Tamper proof, weather proof, breakage proof

Select courier & hand-over Courier performances vary across regions a LOT

Get tracking id & communicate to customer Follow-up for timely delivery

Take care of returns (faulty product/user changes their mind)

Minimize returns

This is Dhanda

No glamour – this is dhanda and very traditional at that.

Your competition is on SP road and Chandni Chowk.Dealing with suppliers: > Signing agreements with suppliers > getting them to share data feeds > getting them to fulfill your orders

Dealing with Payment Gateways Setting up & operating large warehouses Dealing with Couriers People may not be as forthright & honest

Conclusion Flipkart, the first billion dollar Internet company

from India(going by 2015 estimates )is by far the leading online store in the nation.

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.

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

Wikipedia

The Next Web

Flipkart

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