Analysis Of Flipkart

1. FLIPKART
Company Overview:
Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce company, headquartered in Bangalore,
Karnataka, India, and incorporated in Singapore as a private limited company
Flipkart was founded in October2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal,
alumni of the IIT, Delhi and former Amazon employees. The company initially
focused on online booksales before expanding into other productcategories
such as consumer electronics, fashion, home essentials, groceries, and lifestyle
products. Theservice competes primarily with Amazon's Indian subsidiary and
domestic rival Snapdeal. As of March 2017, Flipkart held a 39.5% market share
of India's e-commerce industry. Flipkart has a dominant position in the apparel
segment, bolstered by its acquisition of Myntra, and was described as being
"neck and neck" with Amazon in the sale of electronics and mobile phones.
Flipkart also owns PhonePe, a mobile payments service based on the UPI. In
August 2018, U.S.-based retail chain Walmart acquired a 77% controlling stake
in Flipkart for US$16 billion, valuing Flipkart at around $20 billion.
 Partnerships
1. In February 2014, Flipkart partnered with Motorola Mobility to be the
exclusive Indian retailer of its Moto G smartphone.
2. In April 2017, eBay announced that it would sell its Indian subsidiary,
eBay.in, to Flipkart and invest $500 million in the company.
3. In August 2019, Flipkart entered into a partnership with Authentic Brands to
license and distribute Nautica in India.
4. In November 2019, Flipkart invested $4 million in the customer engagement
and rewards platform EasyRewardz.
 Acquisitions:
1. In 2010, Flipkart acquired the Bangalore-based social bookdiscovery service
WeRead from Lulu.com.
2. In 2011, Flipkart acquired the digital distribution business Mime360.com
and the digital content library of the Bollywood portal Chakpak. Following
this acquisition, Flipkart launched their DRM-free online music store Flyte
in 2012 which was later shutdown.
3. In 2012, Flipkart acquired Letsbuy, an online electronics retailer and Myntra,
an online fashion retailer, for $280 million in May 2014. Myntra continues to
operate alongside Flipkart as a standalone subsidiary focusing on separate
market segments.
4. In 2015, Flipkart acquired Appiterate, a Delhi-based mobile marketing
automation firm. Flipkart stated that it would use Appiterate's technology to
enhance its mobile services and also purchased a minor stake in digital
mapping provider MapmyIndia.

2. 5. In 2016, Flipkart acquired the online fashion retailer Jabong.comfrom
Rocket Internet for $70 million and the UPI mobile payments start-up
PhonePe.
6. In 2017, Flipkart made a $2 million investment in TinyStep, a parenting
information start-up. Flipkart invested $35 million in Arvind Fashions
Limited's newly formed subsidiary Arvind Youth Brands for a 27% stake in
the company.
7. In 2020, Flipkart acquired a 7.8% stake in Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail
for $204 million.
 Funding:
1. Flipkart presently stands at a valuation of $24.9 billion USD in the year
2020.
2. The company’s primary investment had been infused by the founders
themselves, which was a sum total of 5,600 USD. Postthis followed the
investment from Accel India and Tiger Global among whom, Tiger Global
remains a key investor of the company.
3. A few of the key investors of the platform include eBay, Axis Bank,
Manhattan Venture Partners, Naspers, and Softbank Vision Fund. The
biggest turning point for the platform was when it got acquired by Walmart
in for $16 billion, with Walmart acquiring a 77% stake in the company.
4. As reported by NDTV Gadgets 360, Flipkart’s most recent funding was the
$1.2 billion (roughly Rs. 9,048 crores)it raised in a recent equity round
which was headed by its majority owner, the US e-commerce giant Walmart.
The freshly acquired funds will be invested in two parts during the remaining
fiscal year, the firm stated.
5. The platform is now in talks to raise at least $3 billion from investors
including SoftBank Group Corp. and several sovereign wealth funds, as of
June 2021.
6. Flipkart has raised $560.45 million from Walmart as part of the $1.2 billion
round it announced in July.
Acquisition by Walmart: On 4 May 2018, it was reported that the US retail
chain Walmart had won a bidding war with Amazon to acquire a majority stake
in Flipkart for $15 billion. On 9 May 2018, Walmart officially announced its
intent to acquire a 77% controlling stake in Flipkart for $16 billion. Following
the purchase, Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal left the company. The
remaining management team now reports to Marc Lore, CEO of Walmart
eCommerce US. Walmart president Doug McMillon cited the "attractiveness"
of the market, explaining that their purchase "is an opportunity to partner with
the company that is leading transformation of eCommerce in the market". The
acquisition was completed on 18 August 2018. Walmart also provided $2
billion in equity funding to the company.

3. Note on Founders:
Sachin Bansal is an Indian entrepreneur. He is best known as the co-
founder of Flipkart, that was acquired by Walmart (77 per cent stake) at $16
billion in 2018. During his over 11-year career at Flipkart, Bansal was CEO and
chairman.
Bansal was born in Chandigarh, India, on August 5, 1981. His father is a
business man and mother, a homemaker. Bansal attended Indian Institute of
Technology Delhi and completed a degree in computer engineering in 2005.
After graduation, Bansal worked at Techspanfor a few months and later in 2006
he joined Amazon Web Services as a senior software engineer. In 2007, Bansal
quit Amazon to start his own venture.
In October2007, Bansal and his co-founder, Binny Bansal, started an online
bookstore, Flipkart, with an initial capital of ₹400,000 (US$5,600). They first
started operating out of an apartment in Koramangala, in Bangalore, India. In
the first few months, according to Bansal's own claims, he oversaw all business
details, from building the first version of their website to sourcing book to
packing and delivering them. From inception until 2016, Bansal held the
position of Chief Executive Officer and from 2016 until 2018, he held the
position of Executive Chairman. In 2018, Bansal signed a non-compete clause
with Walmart and exited Flipkart. The non-compete clause restricted Bansal
from starting any business that directly or indirectly competed with Flipkart for
18 months and in making any investments in businesses competing with
Flipkart for 36 months from his departure.
In December 2018, Bansal founded BACQ Acquisitions Private Limited, a
venture that focused on building and acquiring technology-driven businesses in
diverse industry verticals. Since 2014, Bansal has made 18 investments in local,
early-stage start-ups where the deal size was $1–2 million. In 2019, Bansal
invested $100 million in Ola Cabs and received a stake holding of 0.37 per cent.
In February 2019, he had investments in Ola, Grey Orange, Ather Energy,
SigTuple, Inshorts, Unacademy and TeamIndus.
Awards and Recognition:
The Economic Times for "Entrepreneur of the year".
In 2015, Bansal was named as the 86th richest personin India by Forbes India.
In 2016, Time Magazine included Bansal and his co-founderin the 100 most
influential people in the world list.
In 2017, India Todayincluded Bansal and his co-founder in India's 50 most
powerful people list.

4. Binny Bansal is an Indian billionaire Internet entrepreneur. In 2007 he
co-founded the e-commerce platform Flipkart with Sachin Bansal and served as
the chief operating officer until 11 January 2016 and was then promoted to chief
executive officer (CEO). In January 2017 he was promoted to Group CEO and
resigned in November 2018 due to personal misconduct allegations of Flipkart.
Binny is from Chandigarh and graduated from the Indian Institute of
Technology Delhi with a degree in computer science and engineering. He is
currently an anchor investor in the venture firm 021 Capital which focuses on
investing in the fields of biotechnology, agritech, and the internet.
Binny Bansal is originally from Chandigarh, the capital city of Punjab and
Haryana. His business partner, Sachin Bansal, is also from Chandigarh.
Although they share the same last name, they are not related. They both
coincidentally, were students of computer science engineering at Indian Institute
of Technology, Delhi. Bansal currently resides in Bangalore. His father is a
retired chief manager at a bank and his mother is in the government sector. He
has no siblings and is married to a homemaker.
Before co-founding Flipkart, Binny was employed by Amazon for nine months,
and before that he had been rejected by Google twice. Binny Bansal and his
business partner Sachin Bansal initially thought of starting a comparison search
engine, but realized that the market for E-commerce in India was very small.
Hence, after leaving Amazon in 2007, they founded Flipkart as an e-commerce
company. Before joining Amazon, Binny had worked with Sarnoff Corporation
for a year and a half, where he developed a lane sensordevice for cars which
would warn you and beep automatically if you changed lanes without giving a
signal. In 2016, Binny Bansal became the CEO of Flipkart, where he worked on
strategic development, direction and business management. In 2017, he
assumed the role of CEO of Flipkart Group and his previous position was
handed to Kalyan Krishnamurthy. In 2018, Walmart acquired a 77% stake in
Flipkart group. After the acquisition, Binny Bansal assumed the role of
chairman and continued as Group CEO. His 5.5% stake in Flipkart was valued
at $1 billion after the acquisition. He resigned from Flipkart in November 2018
on allegations of personal misconduct.
Awards and Recognition:
In September 2015, Binny Bansal along with Sachin Bansal, was named the
86th richest person in India with a net worth of $1.3 billion by Forbes India
Rich List.
India Todayranked him #26th along with Sachin Bansal in India's 50 Most
powerful people of 2017 list.

5. Flipkart’s Business Model:
Flipkart is an online B2C shopping portal, which provides shopping
opportunities to Indian consumers. It allows the vendors to sell their ready-to-
sell products bygiving appealing discounts or sales to its consumers who wish
to buy them. The buyers choosethe products they want and place an order and
they are shipped to them. The sellers get an agreed price after deducting some
commission for Flipkart's services that are provided to these sellers.
The various options for selling and buying through Flipkart are through:
• Flipkart website
• The web app
• Social websites
• Advertised or affiliated networks like review websites, couponwebsites,
bloggers, etc.
The percentage commission charged by Flipkart varies from the type of product
and its sales. It ranges from 5% to 20% excluding taxes and discounts. This was
the basic idea from which Flipkart earned its online place.
Flipkart generates revenue not just by selling products buthas various revenue
channels including:
• Web Portal
Providing a platform to the sellers, Flipkart charges a commission for all the
services given to them proving to be the basic sourceof revenue.
• Listing & Convenience Fee
This is another method of revenue; it charges some amount of listing fee to the
sellers and convenience fee to the buyers for fast delivery. The convenience fee
also includes the gift-wrapping charges, billings that add up to the total revenue
of the company.
• Logistics
This is revenue collected from the sellers for shipping their products. It provides
services to its sellers which are similar to other courier companies. The charges
of delivery services vary from place to place and the distance required to be
covered.
• Digital Media
Flipkart sells ads to the sellers or brands as well as various products suchas co-
advertising, co-branding, etc.
• Co-branding Opportunities On Flipkart’s Homepage
The slider on Flipkart’s homepage introduces a chance for sellers to advertise
their products and launches to the buyers which get thousands of views.
• Co-advertised Products Towards Publications
The ads that are shared by the newspapers and magazines’ front pages and
allow the brands to advertise themselves. Supposea new phone has been
launched in the market. Flipkart gets the ad on the front page of the newspaper
and the costis shared with the brand that has to advertise the product.

6. • Target Search Results
This works like when someone searches for a product, Flipkart decides which
sellers’ products are to be shown on the top. This is the space that will be solved
by Flipkart shortly.
• Myntra
Myntra is a website owned by Flipkart which is another online fashion portal
that boostsup the overall fashion category of Flipkart. Myntra earns a huge
number of sales on its fashion products and has been measured to be higher than
the fashion sales of Flipkart. The revenues earned by the website Myntra are
accounted for the total earnings of Flipkart.

7. Historical Evaluationof Flipkart:
2021 In June 2021, Flipkart announced its partnership with the
Telangana government to deploy drones to deliver medical supplies
in remote areas amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In June 2021, Flipkart wholesale joined forces with Ace Turtle,
an omnichannel enablement platform, to secure licensing rights
for Toys“R”Us and Babies“R”Us.
In June 2021, the company added a new fulfilment centre (FC) in
Dankuni, West Bengal. The FC is spread across 2.2 lakh sq. ft.
and has a potential to create ~3,500 direct jobs.
Flipkart signed a MoU with Jharkhand government and Federation of
Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) to build
infrastructure and industrial development, including social
development.
2020 On October 23, Flipkart acquired a 7.8% stake in Aditya Birla
Fashion and Retail, a subsidiary of the Aditya Birla Group, for
Rs. 1,500 crore (US$ 203.8 million).
Flipkart recorded 110 order placements per second during their
annual Big Billion Days Sale event in October. The company stated
that >50% orders were from Tier III cities and beyond.
Flipkart partnered with PayTM for its annual Big Billion Days
Sale event, offering customers the convenience of making payments
directly through the application with the bonus of receiving
PayTM cashbacks over and above Flipkart discounts.
On September 08, 2020, Flipkart signed an MoU with the Government
of Jharkhand to onboard Jharkhand’s artisans, weavers and
craftsmen onto ‘Flipkart Samarth’—an initiative aimed at enabling
and handholding craftsmen from across India to set up an online
business.
Flipkart started wholesale e-commerce service in India.
Flipkart aims 100% transition to electric vehicles in next 10
years.
On July 09, 2020, Flipkart Group bought a minority stake in
Arvind Youth Brands, a subsidiary of Arvind Fashions Ltd (AFL),
for Rs. 260 crore (US$ 36.88 million)
Introduced voice assistant to help customers buy groceries
2019 Launched smart assistive feature called Flipkart Saathi
Launched its online grocery store, ‘Supermart’, in Mumbai
Flipkart signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the
Government of Jharkhand to launch Flipkart SAMARTH
Flipkart brought US brand Nautica onboard to tap Indian fashion
market

8. 2018 Walmart acquired 77% stake in Flipkart for Rs. 111,824 crores
(US$ 16 billion)
Launched fund to invest in early-stage start-ups to seed
innovation in areas related to E-commerce ecosystem
2017 PhonePe crosses 10 million downloads on Google Playstore.
Softbank Vision Fund invested in Flipkart after which Flipkart
had in excess of US$ 4 billion of cash on its balance sheet
2016 Crossed 100 million registered customers.
Acquire Unified Payment Interface (UPI) based start-up PhonePe.
It also Launched PhonePe, India’s first UPI based app.
2014 Flipkart became the first Indian internet retailer to register
US$ 1.9 billion gross merchandise value (GMV).
Acquired fashion e-seller Myntra.
2013 Launched PayZippy, an online payments solution for merchants and
customers.
Sold 100,000 books in a single day.
2012 Launched lifestyle and fashion portfolio. Launched electronics
private label DigiFlip.
2011 Launches digital wallet. Delivery to more than 600 cities in
India.
2010 Launched Music, Movies and Mobiles category.
Launched cash on delivery. Flipkart also launched its logistic
arm, Ekart
2007 Founded in 2007 and launched books.

9. SWOT Analysis of Flipkart
Strengths of Flipkart
Flipkart’s continuous dominance in online retail and is attributable to numerous
internal factors.
 ExceptionalBrand Recall
Flipkart enjoys an extensive degree of brand recall through online branding,
social media and its quirky TV advertisements. Be it those kids acting like
adults in those TV ads or the frenzy around ‘Big Billion Day’. Over the years,
Flipkart managed to rope in icons like Alia Bhatt, Ranbir Kapoor, Virat Kohli
etc to connectwith its user segments. Tag lines like ‘Ab Har Wish Hogi Poori’
and “India ka Fashion Capital’ are trending amongst Indian consumers.
 ExperiencedFoundation
The online retail industry in India was taking its baby steps back in 2007-08.
And at that time, Flipkart’s founders (Bansal brothers) who had just worked at
Amazon were leading the firm. Their technical expertise in online retail industry
eased Flipkart’s growth and prominence. Even after Amazon’s entry, the
competition is still cut throat owing to the great foundations laid by them.
 Strategic Acquisitions & Partnerships
Flipkart has consistently been able to establish tie-ups with likes of Myntra,
Jabong, Walmart because it wanted to solidify its position. Having a separate
brand pertaining to fashion and one for digital payments (PhonePe) contributes
greatly to brand equity. Further, Flipkart has entered many strategic partnerships
like Ekart, Chakpak, Letsbuy, Walmart etc. This enables Flipkart to bolster their
logistics, payment gateways and digital content creation.
 High Volume & Range of Products
Flipkart has a plethora of quality productoptions to choosefrom in every
category they sell. Exclusive tie-ups with popular brands like Lifestyle, Apple,
Motorola, and Xiaomi in the past as well as encouraging in-house brands like
Citron, Digiflip & MarQ etc have helped with their large catalogue of products.

10. Weaknesses of Flipkart
The online retail giant, Flipkart also faces some internal weaknesses.
 Excessive AdvertisementExpenses
Flipkart spends as much as 30% of its annual revenues on marketing and
advertising, much higher than HUL. Now, that’s a steep benchmark!
Flipkart relies on heavy discounts, spending crores to attract and retain
customers because it wants higher visibility across mediums. And, Flipkart
reported a loss of Rs 1950 crores in FY2020 even though revenue grew by 32%.
Therefore, ‘Big Billion Day’ has become a trademark yearly sale event for
online shoppers. But excessive spends on ads is not sustainable in the long run.
‘Flipkart Plus’ is nothing more than a simple rewards program for shoppers.
They have failed to build greater impetus around it and branding it for users to
spend money to get that ‘Plus’ subscription.
 Lack of TechnologicalInnovation
Flipkart distribution channels and outreach are limited and nowhere comparable
to its top competitors. The supply chain and logistics for the products delivered
to users’ needs massive upliftment. The Just-in-Time inventory philosophy
needs to be followed as shipping times and lead times to completing order is too
high for Flipkart. Further, Flipkart has lacked on the R&D aspectof technology
- routing users from various mediums to their website exactly what Alexa does
for Amazon.
 Rapid Acquisition Spree
Flipkart has been lately looking to up the game by focusing on improving user
experience. It has acquired a host of start-ups like Mech Mocha (social gaming)
and AR start-up Scapic. Given that the company is reportedly posting losses,
and competition is heating up, so siphoning funds on improving user
engagement on their platform isn’t exactly first priority. This rapid acquisition
spree might turn out to be damaging for the finances.

11. Opportunities of Flipkart
While there are many obstacles on the way, there are situations where Flipkart
can benefit and leverage from.
 Post-Pandemic Sentiments
Just like COVID has wreaked havoc globally, it also provides great impetus for
embracing ‘digital’. As more and more consumers are being aware and
switching to online consumption of services. You might be ordering your daily
essentials though these E-commerce websites. It Is a golden opportunity for
Flipkart to grab on. They should extend its range of offerings focusing on
consumer sentiments and insights.
 MarketDevelopment
Owing to the thrust towards digital economy and retail, Flipkart should indulge
in new market development and extend its services.Flipkart has to be move
across borders ofIndia and serve customers from neighbouring geographies like
South-East Asian countries. Because these countries have a high demand for
online retail. Entering into joint ventures with local players, Flipkart can look to
diversify its revenue from alternate markets.
 Delivery Excellence
Order returns, refunds, cancelations, redressal of delivery issues, and fake
productdeliveries etc are issues Flipkart should enhance in their ranks. Flipkart
should try to reduce the delivery times and increase its operational efficiency for
tier 2 & 3 cities because rural dwellers are now surging to online shopping.
 Secure and Streamline Payments
Better online secure payments can instil more confidence in people to shop
online. India has one of the highest no of smartphone users in the world.
Flipkart can look to streamline payments for their orders through an in-house
payment service like AmazonPay to include new productlines.
And Flipkart can also look to ride on the wave of ‘Vocalfor Local’ sentiments
in India allowing more MSMEs to sell on their platforms.

12. Threats of Flipkart
In this era of intense competition for survival, there are some threats of Flipkart
that it must be vary of.
 Threat of Intense Rivalry
There is no dearth of competitors in the online retail space. Be it international
players like Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba or local ones like Shopclues, Snapdeal,
and Paytm etc. Presence of so many rivals selling similar products immensely
reduces revenues. Two top firms in Amazon & Flipkart are locked in a battle of
burning cash, offering festive sales, and ambitious money infusions from
investors. Because they both want to conquerthe Indian online retail market and
oust the other.
 Buyer Power& Switching
The online retail market is saturated with Snapdeal, Paytm, eBay, Myntra
Reliance Digital, and Nykaa etc. Customers visibly have lower switching costs;
they instantly switch from one online shopping website to another. The products
are mostly the same apart from a few brands. Hence, ‘standing out’ is tough to
say the least.
 Stringent Government Regulations
It is hard to sustain losses and keep doing business if the government
regulations keep hindering the business. In fact, Flipkart was recently
investigated related to violations of competition laws in 2020 by CCI
(Competition Commission of India). Indian government also exercises strict
control and monitoring of FDI and funds from foreign investors into Indian
firms. This led to many legal issues and operational problems for Flipkart (now
owned by US-based Walmart). Also, in wake of Indo-China tensions,
proliferation of fake goods on online retail sites has been met with stringent
measures.

13. Organizational Structure of Flipkart
There are top five shareholders of the Flipkart, the list is as follows: -
 Walmart – Holds 81.3% Stake
 Tiger Global – Holds 4.77% Stake
 Binny Bansal – Holds 4.2% Stake
 Microsoft – 1.53%
 Accel 1.38 per cent,
 Iconiq Capital 0.98 per cent,
 Temasek 0.29 per cent and
 UBS 0.19 per cent
*Others would include the investments by DST Globals, Morgan Stanley, NEA
Ventures, Iconiq, and many other big anchor investors.
Flipkart is the company which is incorporated in the year 2011 in Singapore and
registered itself with the Singaporean government. Flipkart Pvt Ltd is the main
holding and the parent company under which there are many subsidiaries
involved.
Subsidiaries under Flipkart Pvt Ltd. are:
 Myntra
 PhonePe
 Upstream Commerce Ltd.
 Jabong.com
 Ekart
 FK Myntra Holdings Private Limited
 DSYN Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
 AdIQuity Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
 Ugenie, Inc.
 Jeeves Consumer Services Pvt Ltd
 Mallers, Inc.
There are five other companies which have been incorporatedin India.
They are:
 Flipkart Payment Gateway Services Pvt Ltd (Which provides the
payment gateway services with the productcalled payzippy)
 Flipkart India Pvt Ltd (Wholesale cash and carry entity)
 Flipkart Internet Pvt Ltd (Flipkart.com is owned by this company and all
the technology related issues is seen by this company)
 Digital Media Pvt Ltd (It is a dormant company which doesn’tfiles its
return)
 Digital Management Services Pvt Ltd (It is an enterprise which runs
letsbuy.com)

14. Flipkart Under Sachin's Leadership
Flipkart was the Indian e-commerce’s biggest success. With a $15 billion
acquisition by Walmart, the brand became one of its kind. Hence, Flipkart was
in the scene to give a tough competition to Amazon. Initially, Sachin met Binny
Bansal in 2005. They both were students of the same institution IITD. In 2007,
they launched a start-up named Flipkart. This brand was introduced to
revolutionize the e-commerce sectorforever. However, the initial days were
never easy for Sachin and Binny. Despite all the difficulties they faced, Sachin
and Binny were successfulin delivering the products and managed to close the
initial year with 20 successfulshipments. The year 2008 will be characterized
by the growth of Flipkart. That year, the company opened its first office in
Bengaluru. With many customers showing an interest in the service provided by
Flipkart, Sachin decided that it was time to launch 24X7 customer service to
deal with the platform’s growing consumer base. That year, the company
witnessed over 3,400 shipments being successfully delivered.
The next year, Sachin and Binny hired their first full-time employee. The man
was Ambur Iyyappa. Well, Ambur became a millionaire later on! After
providing quality services to its customers, the team witnessed a huge growth in
its popularity. Therefore, Accel Partners became the first VC firm to invest in
Flipkart. The investment was $1 million and this fueled the functionality of
Flipkart. Hence, the company expanded its offices to Delhi and Mumbai that
year.
• Bringing Cashon Delivery Options
Cash has been an indispensable part of the Indian economy. Hence, to attract
more customers, Flipkart founders introduced the Cash on Delivery payment
option. This enabled customers to pay for their purchase in cash upon the
doorstep option. Ekart was the logistics company that came forward to deliver
all the products to the customers. Apart from the introduction Cash on Delivery
option, the brand also brought in a 30-day return policy for its customers. The
productfalling under the 30-day return policy category were Music, Movies,
Games, Electronics, and Mobiles.

15. • Turning Flipkart into A Truly Pan-Indian Delivery Network
With steady growth in the 2010 era, it started selling Cameras, computers,
laptop health, and personal care appliances too. Sachin also introduced
Flipkart’s digital wallet. By the end of 2011, Flipkart’s network expanded to
over 600 cities across the country. The decadeof 2010 will be characterized by
the development of the technology sector. With many big names like Apple,
Microsoft, and Android (Google) developing mobile software, the smartphone
became popular in the country. Now, as everyone wished to own a smartphone,
it was time for Flipkart for switching to the app-based platform. Hence, in 2012,
Flipkart introduced its app. The platform had received PCI DSS certification.
This enabled it to store the card details of the customers safely. Hence, the next
time the same customer uses the online mode of payment, he/she will not have
to re-write the card details again. Flipkart’s online expansion continues to take
place in the present year. The launch of fashion, perfumes, watches, menswear,
toys, posters, and baby care and the introduction of DigiFlip, Flyte MP3 were
symbolic of the rise of Flipkart as a brand.
• Reaching The Third-Party Marketplace
Flipkart under Sachin decided to expand its service. Therefore, they adopted a
marketplace model to bring third-party sellers into the frame. This was a
decision that changed Flipkart’s fortune as it was able to sell 100,000 books per
day. To attract more customers, the team lead by Sachin decided to introduce
the Next Day Delivery Scheme. Flipkart also started to acceptinternational
cards for online transactions to acceptinternational orders. After taking giant
strides, the company raised $360 million in two rounds successfully.
• Big Billion Day
Under Sachin, Flipkart was able to compete with Amazon. However, in 2014,
the brand team introduced Big Billion Day, this was a masterstroke as this
scheme increased the popularity of the company substantially. After the
acquisition of online fashion retailer Myntra, the company raised $1.9 billion
across three separate rounds of funding. Flipkart was also able to becomethe
first Indian company to register a Gross Merchandise Value of $1.9 billion. Big
Billion Day was introduced to attract customers across the nation. The best part
of the deal was the discounts offered by the company. People were able to buy
goods at a discount of over 80%!
• Sachin As an Inspiration
The story of Sachin Bansal has been an inspirational one. His leadership skills
enabled Flipkart to grow in an environment that was ruled by Amazon. With

16. perfect planning and execution, his ideas were successfully implemented. Now,
Flipkart stands as one of the biggest companies in the startup sector. Hence, his
story is of great importance regarding how to implement one’s ideas.