Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce company that started in 2007 selling books online. It has since expanded into additional product categories like mobile phones, electronics, and apparel. The document discusses Flipkart's mission to provide customers with a delightful shopping experience and become the Amazon of India. It also analyzes the online retail industry in India and discusses factors like increasing internet usage, competition from other companies, and challenges around customer loyalty and payment options. The SWOT analysis identifies strengths like Flipkart's logistics arm and acquisitions, and weaknesses like an excessive focus on growth over profits.

1. Flipkart Case Study
By : - Abhinab Robert Rao, Anurag Bari, Nitish Sahu,
Poonam Bachiyani, Tanuj Sethia

2. Online retailing
 Online industry is booming in India.
 The huge population is only one part of the story because of Low Internet usage, low
credit card penetration, slow internet speeds and fulfillment issues.
 It took time for the customers to adopt Modern Retail Outlets format like Reliance
Fresh.
 Then came yet another format : e-retailing.
 It was really tough to break into this space because Indians were very skeptical about
doing transactions online; providing their passwords , debit card number and all.
 Schemes like Cash On Delivery & EMI system made it easy for the customers to get
used to online purchase.
 These online portals often sell at loss for getting the traffic in their website & getting
them experience their service.

3. Consumer analysis
 Time poor
 Want everything at ease
 Need a wide range of products to choose from
 Need deliveries on time
 Want their information to be kept confidential

4. Mission
 Mission – Providing a delightful and memorable
customer.
 Vision – To become the Amazon of India.
 Objective - Completely hassle free shopping
experience with best prices in India.

5. Core Values
 Customer Obsession
 Ownership
 Impact
 Honesty
 Selflessness
 Communication
 Innovation

6. Introduction of New Category
Over the years in Flipkart
 2007- Books
 2010- Media. Mobile Phones & Accessories.
 2011- Gaming and Console , Audio Players and TV,
Personal and Health care, office Supplies, Home and
Kitchen.
 2012-Health and Beauty , Lifestyle, Toys, Posters,
Apparels, Sport and fitness, Shoes.

7. Important factors
 Order flow :- Customer -> Desktop, Mobile Site,
Mobile Apps -> Flipkart page -> Place Order->
Confirm order.
 Customer Policies-> Payment Options, Cancellation
Policies , Refund Policies
 Flipkart website Indian ranking 10.
 Marketing:- Offline and Online Media both.
 Result of marketing Initiatives:- Growth in traffic,
Growth in orders received and Growth in revenue.

8. Strengths
Weaknesse
s
SWOT
Opportunities Threats

9. Strengths
• Strong Brand Value
• Own logistics arm e-Kart
• Own Online payment gateway solution Payzippy.
• Own Marketplace Model.
• Acquisitions
 Myntra.
 Mime360
 Weread.
 Chakpak.
 Letsbuy.com.

10. Weaknesses
• Investor driven organization or lack of independent
board.
• Secretive Political Culture.
• Excessive focus on expanding customer base rather
than pulling profits.

11. Opportunities
• Providing logistics services to its competitors.
• Growth in online retail sector in India.

12. Threats
 From competitors like Amazon, Snapdeal, Infibeam,
Indiaplaza, Homeshop18 etc.

13. Online Retail Industry
 1.4 – 1.6 Billion $.
 Will grow to 10 billion $. To reach $76 billion by 2021.
 Growth driven by the country’s growing Internet –
habituated consumer base.
 180 million broadband users by 2020, and a
burgeoning class of mobile Internet users.

14. Major Challenges for
Online Retailers
 Customer Loyalty, Trust and Education.
 Most of the customers prefer Cash on Delivery option
instead of credit/debit card payment.
 So, this makes online retailers to lose some of the
cash as the delivery companies will keep the money
for 15 days and later they pay to these online retail
companies.

15. Porter’s Five Forces Framework
of this Industry.
 Supplier power:
 In this industry, suppliers are the manufacturers of
finished products like Nike, Dell, Apple etc.
 Online retail companies sell various products ranging
from books to computer accessories to apparels to
footwear.
 Since there are many suppliers for any particular
category, they can’t show power on online retail
companies.

16.  Buyer power:
 Buyers in this industry are customers who purchase
products online. Since this industry is flooded with so many
players, buyers are having lot of options to choose.
 Switching costs are also less for customers since they can
easily switch from one online retail company to other one.
 Same products will be displayed in several online retail
websites. So, product differentiation is almost low. So, all
these factors make customers to possess more power
when compared to online retail companies.

17.  Threat of New Entrants:
 Indian government is going to allow 51% FDI in multi-brand online retail and
100% FDI in single brand online retail sooner or later. So, this means foreign
companies can come and start their own online retail companies.
 There are very less barriers to entry like less amount of money required to
start a business, less amount of infrastructure required to start business. All
you need is to tie up with suppliers of products and you need to develop a
website to display products so that customers can order products, and a tie
up with online payment gateway provider like bill desk.
 Industry is also going to grow at a rapid rate. It is going to touch 76 billion $
by 2021. Industry is going to experience an exponential growth rate. So,
obviously no one wants to miss this big opportunity.

18.  Threat of substitutes:
 Substitute for this industry as of now is physical stores.
Their threat is high for this industry. Though the customers
are going for online purchases instead of going to physical
stores as it will save time, effort, and money. But still many
people still rely on retail stores.
 When we compare relative quality, relative price of product
that he/she buys online with physical store, both are almost
same and in some cases, online discounts will be available
which makes customers to buy products online.

19.  Rivalry with in Industry:
 Competition is very high in this industry with so many
players like Flipkart, Myntra, Jabong, Snapdeal,
Amazon, Indiaplaza, Homeshop18 etc.

20. Environmental Analysis
 Demographic trends: When it comes to online retail
industry, for people to shop online, they need to have
internet. India is third largest country when it comes to
internet usage after U.S and China. Presently, above
200 million people are using internet. Out of this, 110
million people access internet through mobiles. In
India, 8-10% of online users transact online. So, it
means it comes to 20 million people. And also, with
smart phones, tablets coming into picture, number of
people who are going to use internet is going to be
increased. This means, increase in the online retail
usage in India.

21.  Socio-cultural Influences:
• Culturally, Indians tend to buy the products in physical stores. They
want to touch, feel the product before buying.
• If the risk associated with product is very high, like in purchase of
Television, Laptop, Washing Machine etc., they tend to go to physical
store.
• Indians will mostly influenced by peers, friends while purchasing the
products. So, these factors are negatively affecting online retail
industry.
• But slowly, culture of buying is changing. They are going for online
purchases but this rate is less when compared to offline purchase. But
with 30 day replacement guarantee, if the product is not functioning
properly, by E-commerce companies, and with the availability of peer’s
or friend’s feedback about products online, they are slowly moving from
offline to online purchases.

22.  Political-Legal factors: India is pushing for Foreign
Direct Investment in Online Retail Industry.

23.  Technological Factors:
 With the advancement of technology at a rapid pace,
online retail industry is going to benefit a lot.
 Several technological devices like smart phones, laptops,
tablets etc. are going to help this online retail Industry
because with the penetration of these devices, Indian
consumers are going to purchase their products online.
 Even Smart phone market is growing at a very rapid rate
in India.
 Since companies can gather the data about their
customers when they are doing business with them, they
can use these data to personalize the services by using
predictive analytics

24. Competition
 The competitors for Flipkart are not only the online
portals but also the offline marketers like Reliance
fresh , big bazaar , etc.
 Flipkart is an attacker brand who has adopted flanker
attack strategy to fight against competition from leader
brands like amazon.

25. Actions recommended for
Flipkart:
 Since online retail is going to boom in the coming years, it is necessary for this industry to have
logistics support. So, since Flipkart is already having its own logistics arm E-kart, it can provide
this logistics service to its competitors in online retail industry.
 In this type of industry, price matters a lot to customers. If same product is offered by two e-tailers
at two different prices, customers will go for the lowest price. So, Flipkart should try to
offer the products at lower prices. This can be done by optimizing its logistics services. Since
logistics cost plays an important role in determining the price of the product. Filpkart should try
to optimize its supply chain in such a manner that its supply chain costs should be very less and
try to offer products at lower price compared to its competitors.
 Predictive analytics are going to play a big role in the future.. So, Flipkart can use data about its
customers like what are they buying, what are their buying patterns and can target them by using
predictive analytics. For example, Amazon uses customer’s purchase history and suggests
products according to it.
 Flipkart can also employ relationship marketing into it. Instead of mainly focusing on customer
acquisition, it should also focus on customer retention. Because loyal customers are more
profitable when compared to new customers.