FLIPKART INDIA LIMITED

Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce company founded by

Sachin and Binny Bansal, headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka .The company acts as a mediator between sellers and customers and is regarded as the Amazon of India.

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

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.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Founded in 2007, by Sachin and Binny Bansal.

Flipkart -: Indian electronic commerce company headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka.

In its initial years, Flipkart focused on online sales of books but it later expanded to electronic goods and a variety of other products
Currently has 11+ million titles of books and sells ~20 items per minute. Other items include electronics, mobiles, Music, Games etc. Ranks in top 30 websites in India-based on traffic rankings-8,000,000 visits every month and own delivery network in 27 cities.

FUNDING OF FLIPKART:

Initially funded by the Bansals themselves with 400,000, Flipkart has since then raised funding from venture capital funds Accel India in 2009 and Tiger Global (US$10 million in 2010 and US$20 million in June 2011)

LOCATIONS OF WAREHOUSES-:

Bangalore, Karnataka Chennai, Tamil Nadu Delhi Kolkata, West Bengal Mumbai, Maharashtra Noida, Uttar Pradesh Pune, Maharashtra Kochi, Kerala

PRODUCTS

Flipkart started with selling books. In 2010, they added to their catalogue media (including 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.

2012, product launches includes health & beauty products, Life style products which includes watches, belts, bags & luggage

PRACTICES OF THE SUPPLY CHAIN OF FLIPKART-:

Building the Suppliers base- The Company has established a network of more than 500 distributors and only stocks frequently ordered items.

Building Infrastructure for Operations- The Company has 4 offices with more than 500 employees. Warehouses of the company are located in 7 cities. Company has tie-ups with more than 15 courier companies like Blue Dart, First Flight etc. to deliver their products and Indian post for areas where courier do not reach.

THE PROCESS OF SUPPLY CHAIN-:

Buying the products like books etc. online. Selecting mode of payment & making payments. Enter the phone number and address where the items need to be delivered. Purchased items are packed and shipped. For delivering the items depending upon the area where the item need to be delivered either courier, Indian post or own internal logistics arm is used. The delivery time varies between less than 24 hours and 3 weeks depending on the location and availability of the product. The inter-city, trans-zone deliveries are made using air cargo. For others in close proximity, products are transported overnight by train or truck. For the local parts of the cities where the warehouses of the company exist products are delivered using two-wheelers, bicycles.

BUSINESS RESULT:

Flipkart's reported sales were: 40 million in FY 20092010, 200 million in FY 20102011 750 million for FY 20112012. In FY 20122013, 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. On average, Flipkart sells nearly 20 products per minute and is aiming at generating a revenue of 50 billion (US$1 billion) by 2014.

SCREEN SHOT-:

HOW FLIPKART IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS-:

Discoverability: They played well with the SEO thing. EgYahoo News

Different Modes of Payment:

CoD Credit Card EMI and electronic wallet

30 day replacement guarantee

Expensive goods insured while in transit Order via phone and transaction via DD/Cheque

CONTD

Maintains its own delivery status Inventory

Delivery standards
In November 2011, Flipkart launched a new Electronic Wallet feature that allows shoppers to purchase credit to their Flipkart account using credit or debit cards, and can subsequently be utilised to make purchases on the site, as and when required

FLIPKARTS PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY-:

Flipkart has been mostly marketed by word of mouth advertising. Customer satisfaction has been their best marketing medium. Flipkart very wisely used SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Google Ad-words as the marketing tools to have a far reach in the online world. Flipkart.com official Facebook page has close to 9 lakh 'likes'. Flipkart recently launched a series of 3 ads with the tag line - "No Kidding No worries". Kids were used to create the adverts to send out the message - if a kid can do it, you can also do it.

EVOLUTION OF LOGOS-:

SUGGESTIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS:

The company has built a great brand name, they just have to maintain and enhance the same. It needs to keep introducing more products, adapting to the changing needs of the customer with time. The entry of Amazon.com in 2012 in the Indian e-commerce space has been cited as a big challenge to Flipkart. However I think that Flipkart is a respected Brand name in India and should be able to compete with Amazon.

CONCLUSION:

India has 11 million online customers now which will increase to 30 million by 2015. The industry's size is expected to increase to $11.8 b. Seeing the prospects of growth a lot of new online retailers have come up and there is a price war going on to attract more and more customers so it has become extremely important to manage cost to increase profits which is only possible by building an efficient nationwide delivery network, warehouses , inventory management , logistics, efficient teams to manage all this therefore supply chain management becomes an important factor in this industry. Flipkart obtained funding from Tiger global management in 2010 which is being utilized by the company for strengthening supply chain capacity and upgrading technology platforms, including automation at warehouses.

SACHINS TIP FOR THE COMING ENTREPRENEURS

"Dont start out alone, it helps to have a co-founder when

things are not going your way. Perseverance and hard work is very important.
The core of any business is to earn money. You have not done your job well until you find a stranger who is willing to open his/her wallet to give you money for the services/products that you a offering. The next step after that is to focus on scaling it up well."

Thank You..