8. INTRODUCTION
FLIPKART IS AN INDIAN E-COMMERCE COMPANY
HEADQUARTERED IN BANGALORE, KARNATAKA. IT
WAS FOUNDED BY SACHIN BANSAL AND BINNY
BANSAL IN 2007. IN ITS INITIAL YEARS, FLIPKART
FOCUSED ON ONLINE SALES OF BOOKS, BUT LATER IT
EXPANDED TO ELECTRONIC GOODS AND A VARIETY OF
OTHER PRODUCTS. FLIPKART OFFERS MULTIPLE
PAYMENT METHODS LIKE CREDIT CARD, DEBIT
CARD, NET BANKING, E-GIFT VOUCHER, CASH ON
DELIVERY AND CARD SWIPE ON DELIVERY.
9. THEN & NOW
Flipkart was founded in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal,
both alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. They worked
for Amazon.com before quitting and founding their own company.
Initially funded by the Bansals themselves with Rs. 4,00,000. In its initial
years, Flipkart focused on online sales of books.
Today , Flipkart is amongst the top 20 Indian Web sites and has been
credited with being India's largest online bookseller with over 11
million titles on offer.
In 2012, Flipkart added A.C, air coolers, stationery supplies & life
style products to its product portfolio.
As of today, Flipkart employs more than 4,500 people.
10. THE BEGINNING
They are originally from Chandigarh. They are not related in any way, it just
happens to be a coincidence that they are now working on Flipkart together.
They both grew up in Chandigarh and went to the same schools yet did not
know each other well. They went to the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi,
where they studied computer science, and that is where they really got to
know each other because they were studying computer science together.
They graduated from IIT in 2005, and took different jobs in Bangalore. However,
their paths converged again in 2006 when they both joined Amazon.com
India. Amazon was building Amazon Web Services ,which is very big now. They
built things like Amazon S3. Their services have powered more than half of the
start-ups in the United States.
11. RISKING IT ALL ON THE LINE
There was huge risk taken by both the Bansal's as both of them got a high
profile job in the worlds biggest e-commerce website named Amazon.
Leaving Amazon to start their own company with just Rs. 4,00,000
involved a huge risk as there was no guarantee that their idea would
succeed or not.
It was result of this risk taking only that today Flipkart generates Rs 1.5
Crore a Day. It has a record user base of 1 Million in India only.
12. ENTREPRENUAL
QUALITIES
SELF-MOTIVATED
SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS DO NOT NEED SOMEONE WHO HOLDS THEM
ACCOUNTABLE OR FORCES THEM TO BE EFFICIENT AND PRODUCTIVE.
THEY ARE INTUITIVE
THEY CREATED THEIR OWN PATH WITH THEIR INTELLIGENCE, CREATIVITY
AND INTUITION. BUSINESS MODELS ARE CONSTANTLY CHANGING.
CONSEQUENTLY, THE WAY BUSINESS OWNERS MARKET AND GROW THEIR
BUSINESS CONSTANTLY CHANGES. THE MOST SUCCESSFUL
ENTREPRENEURS UNDERSTAND HOW FAST CURRENT TRENDS CHANGE.
MORE IMPORTANTLY, HOWEVER, THEY KNOW HOW TO KEEP UP WITH THE
CHANGES.
13. THEY ARE STRONG-WILLED
THEY STARTED THEIR BUSINESS WITH A VISION - A DREAM. THEY ACTED
ON THEIR DREAM BY TAKING SMALL STEPS TOWARDS ACCOMPLISHING
THEIR GOALS. WITH EVERY STEP, ENTREPRENEURS GET CLOSER TO
ATTAINING THEIR ULTIMATE GOAL OR VISION. HOWEVER, NOT ALL STEPS
ARE EASY TO TAKE. UNFORTUNATELY, NOTHING WORTH FIGHTING FOR
IS EASY TO ATTAIN. SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS ONLY MADE IT PAST
THE DIFFICULT TIMES BY BEING STRONG-WILLED. THEY NEVER LET
PESSIMISM, DIFFICULTY OR ANY OTHER PROBLEMS STAND IN THEIR WAY.
OPTIMISTIC
A POSITIVE OUTLOOK IS ESSENTIAL FOR THE ENTREPRENEUR, WHO
LEARNS TO SEE SETBACKS AS BARGAIN PRICED TUITION FOR THE
VALUABLE BUSINESS LESSONS GAINED THROUGH FIRSTHAND
EXPERIENCE. PAST SHORTCOMINGS, FAILURES, OR DISAPPOINTMENTS
ARE
RELEGATED TO THE PAST SO THAT THEY CANNOT CONTINUE TO HAUNT
THE PRESENT OR OBSTRUCT THE FUTURE.
14. TEAM PLAYER
TEAM PLAYERS KNOW HOW TO SUCCEED BY EMPLOYING THE PHYSICS OF
INTERPERSONAL SYNERGY AND DYNAMIC RELATIONSHIPS. ONE TWIG
CAN BE EASILY SNAPPED, BUT A BUNDLE OF THOSE SMALL TWIGS
BECOMES STRONGER THAN THE SUM OF ITS INDIVIDUAL PARTS AND CAN
BE IMPOSSIBLE TO BEND, MUCH LESS BREAK. THE SAME GOES FOR
BUSINESSES, AND SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS LEVERAGE TEAMWORK
TO GET THE HEAVY LIFTING DONE WITHOUT BREAKING STRIDE.
PASSIONATE ABOUT LEARNING
ENTREPRENEURS ARE OFTEN “AUTODIDACTIC” LEARNERS, WHICH
MEANS THAT MUCH OF WHAT THEY KNOW THEY LEARNED NOT IN
A FORMAL CLASSROOM SETTING BUT INSTEAD ON THEIR OWN BY
SEEKING OUT INFORMATION, ASKING QUESTIONS, AND DOING
PERSONAL READING AND RESEARCH. THEY ALSO ARE QUICK TO
LEARN FROM THEIR OWN MISTAKES, WHICH MEANS THEY ARE LESS
PRONE TO KEEP REPEATING THEM
15. INNOVATION
FLIPKART BROUGHT MAY REVOLUTIONARY INNOVATIVE IDEAS TO MAKE
ONLINE SHOPPING MUCH EASIER AND FUN THAN IT WAS A FEW YEARS
BACK. SOME OF THESE INNOVATIONS ARE :-
16. DELIVERY WITHIN 2 DAYS
The first few e-commerce web sites broke the trust of many Indian
customers by not delivering the order product on time.
Flipkart realised this problem and in order to bring the customer
back to on line shopping it came up with idea of delivering the
product in 2 days & if there is a delay then the customer is paid
interest on the value of product.
17. 30 DAYS RETURN POLICY
In order to satisfy the Indian customer after the product is delivered
flipkart came up with idea of providing 30 day return policy.
This is done to ensure that the product delivered to the customer is
not faulty.
18. Card Swipe on Delivery
Flipkart realised that most of Indian customers are not comfortable
sharing there credit card details online. As there is always a risk of
fraud.
For solving this problem it came up with the idea of card swipe on
delivery i.e- the delivery guy brings the card swipe machine so that
all the transaction happens before customer.
23. BUSINESS RESULTS
In FY 2011–2012, Flipkart crossed the INR5 billion
(US$100 million) mark as Internet usage in the
country increases and people get accustomed
to making purchases online. Flipkart projects its
sales to reach INR10 billion by year 2014. On
average, Flipkart sells nearly 20 products per
minute and is aiming at generating a revenue of
INR50 billion (US$1 billion) by 2015.
24. Low prices in comparison to others
Flipkart directly buys its products from various companies and sell
these products to the customers. This way the cost of middle men
reduces and the company is able to sell its products at much more
cheaper rates than others.
25. Acquisitions
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. Flipkart acquired the rights to Chakpak’s
digital catalogue which includes 40,000 filmographies, 10,000
movies and close to 50,000 ratings. Flipkart has categorically said
that it will not be involved with the original site and will not use the
brand name.
2012: Letsbuy.com is India's second largest e-retailer in electronics.
Flipkart has bought the company for an estimated US$25 million.
Letsbuy.com had been closed down and all the traffic of Letsbuy is
diverted to Flipkart.
26. Products
DigiFlip
Flipkart has launched its own products range under the name DigiFlip, offering
camera bags, pen-drives, headphones, computer accessories and a lot more.
They are eventually expanding the range.
Flyte Digital Music Store
In February 2012, the company revealed its new Flyte Digital Music Store.Flyte,
a legal music download service in the vein of iTunes and Amazon.com, offered
DRM-free MP3 downloads. Flipkart listed the music based on its genre on the
new music store and provided a lot of variety. Users could shop for tracks from
various albums starting at INR6 on the store.
27. A PIECE OF ADVICE FROM THE
ENTREPRENUR
The biggest advice I have given to entrepreneurs is not to start
alone. I always tell them to find a co-founder with whom they have
good chemistry and with whom they share similar goals and vision
for the venture.
Having a cofounder helps get through the ups and downs of
starting up. A shoulder to cry on. A cofounder is a person who can
hold you together. We were a small company growing rapidly in a
new industry. There are mistakes we have made.
We did not blame each other when we made these mistakes.
