FLIPKART INDIA LIMITED

Harpreet Bansal

CSI-3rd year09119020

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 THE COMPANY Founded in 2007, by Sachin and Binny Bansal.

Started with 4 Lakhs funding by owner themselves.

Raised 2 rounds of funding from Accel India and Tiger global management.

Revenue Generated:

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.

Rupees(in crores)

Fiscal Year

4 2008-09

20 2009-10

75 2010-11

5000 By 2015(expected)

BIOGRAPHY: Both are residents of Chandigarh.

Both are graduates(B.Tech) in Computer Science from IIT-Delhi 2005 batch.

They even went to same schools. But came to know each other at IIT-Delhi.

Graduated in 2005 and both started working in Amazon in 2006.Sachin and Binny stayed at bangalore as roommates. They worked at Amazon till 2007

Sachin’s family is business oriented while Binny’s father worked in a bank.

Both their families were very supportive to them in their earlier days. Being an entrepreneur was considered better than doing a job in Sachin’s community.

IDEA AND CREATION Working for Amazon for 2 years made them bored as they didn’t learn new

things there. Thought of creating something on their own and for betterment of society.

Started to create comparison shopping website, but found there was none.

Desired to create an easy to use e-commerce website.

Started selling books- no damages, no touch & feel, people can trust them for 100/- or bit more, better margins etc.

Profit was never given preference-sometimes had to face loss also.

Customer oriented working methods. Perfect for Indian mentality.

They knew that the current FDI regulations do not permit any foreign company to set up a majority owned Indian subsidiary to sell goods in India.

HISTORY Started with 2 bedroom apartment in bangalore. Applied the consignment

model initially. As investments came, built warehouses in different cities to cater the demands.

Initial funding by themselves. Later funding come in mixed ways.

Setting up Technological part like  Catalog Management System, Vendor Management System, Customer Service Consoles-easy way.Setting up company, getting a bank a/c, tie-up with distributors and sellers-hard way.

Initially started word of mouth advertisement- blogs, startup meets, book fairs.

Only two rivals- IndiaMart and RediffBooks -they sold a wide variety of products, but quality and logistics was not up to the mark.

Currently follows a mix of consignment and warehouse model.

HOW FLIPKART IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS:

Discoverability: They played well with the SEO thing. Eg- Yahoo 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

Maintains its own delivery status

Inventory

Delivery standards

OBSTACLES FACED AND HOW THEY CATERED THEM: Initially had no funding for starting a venture, invested 4 lakhs

themselves to start the company.

Having a tie-up with the seller was very difficult. Had only 10 sellers tied up with them initially.

Delivery and logistics need a great deal of improvement to meet their demands.

Getting trust of customers is not easy.

Getting the business model right was very difficult and the model needs to be changed based on experience.

SACHIN AND BINNY’S PERSONALITY Passionate: Both the entrepreneurs were not satisfied with their jobs and

tried to create something of their own inspite of high salaries offered.

Hard working: Operated the company from a 2BHK flat for 3 months. Gave their personal mobile numbers on website to address to customer’s queries.

Risk Taker: Left their jobs for starting their own venture. Faced losses sometimes in order to provide better facility to customer.

Thinking Big: Amazon recently tried to buy Flipkart, but the offer was refused by them.

Opportunity Seeker:When they saw that there are no e-commerce websites in India and the potential is huge, they created their own.

Patience:After starting the company, they did not get even a single order for months, still they did not lose hope.

RECENT AQUISITIONS:

2010: WeRead, a social book discovery tool.

2011: Mime360, a digital content platform company.

2011: Chakpak.com is a Bollywood news site that offers updates, news, photos and videos.

2012: Letsbuy.com is India's second largest e-retailer in electronics. Flipkart has bought the company for an estimated US$ 25 million.

SACHIN’S TIP FOR THE COMING ENTREPRENEURS

"Don’t 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..