Dissertation Report Flipkart (Marketing Stategies)
Dissertation Report Flipkart (Marketing Stategies)
Dissertation Report Flipkart (Marketing Stategies)
DISSERTATION REPORT
ON
SUBMITTED TO-
SUBMITTED BY-
PARAS GUPTA
BBA-6THSEM
A50006413011
DECLARATION
entitled
on,
STUDY
OF
ADVERTISING
STRATEGIES
OF
Presentation In-Charge
Signature of
the Candidate
(Faculty)
Countersigned
2 | Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This report has been made possible due to invaluable and support of a
number of people to whom I own my heartfelt gratitude and without
whose help I may not have been able to complete this report.
Finally I would like to give special thanks to my family and my friends who
make it all happen and make it worth while.
PARAS GUPTA
3 | Page
INDEX
Declaration......(1)
Acknowledgement.......(3)
INTRODUCTION.....(5-9)
Company Profile....(10-13)
Objectives of the study....(14)
Scope of the study...(15)
Marketing Mix of Flipkart.(16-22)
Literature review....(23-26)
Research Methodology...(27)
Research Plan....(28)
Secondary Data...(29)
Primary Data And Interpretation...(30-40)
Limitations..(41)
Findings.....(42)
Suggestions.(43)
Bibliography..(44-45)
INTRODUCTION
Marketing strategy has the fundamental goal of increasing sales and achieving a
sustainable competitive advantage. Marketing strategy includes all basic, short-term, and
long-term activities in the field of marketing that deal with the analysis of the strategic initial
situation of a company and the formulation, evaluation and selection of marketoriented strategies and therefore contribute to the goals of the company and its marketing
objectives.
A marketing strategy will help you focus. It will identify the different ways you can talk to
your customers, and concentrate on the ones that will create most sales. It tells you what to
say, how to say it and who to say it to in order to make more sales. Because timing is critical,
it will tell you when to say it too.
4 | Page
The process usually begins with a scan of the business environment, both internal and
external, which includes understanding strategic constraints. It is generally necessary to try to
grasp many aspects of the external environment, including technological, economic, cultural,
political and legal aspects. Goals are chosen. Then, a marketing strategy or marketing plan is
an explanation of what specific actions will be taken over time to achieve the objectives.
Plans can be extended to cover many years, with sub-plans for each year, although as the
speed of change in the merchandising environment quickens, time horizons are becoming
shorter. Ideally, strategies are both dynamic and interactive, partially planned and partially
unplanned, to enable a firm to react to unforeseen developments while trying to keep focused
on a specific pathway; generally, a longer time frame is preferred. There are simulations such
as customer lifetime value models which can help marketers conduct "what-if" analyses to
forecast what might happen based on possible actions, and gauge how specific actions might
affect such variables as the revenue-per-customer and the churn rate. Strategies often specify
how to adjust the marketing mix; firms can use tools such as Marketing Mix Modeling to
help them decide how to allocate scarce resources for different media, as well as how to
allocate funds across a portfolio of brands. In addition, firms can conduct analyses of
performance, customer analysis, competitor analysis, and target market analysis. A key aspect
of marketing strategy is often to keep marketing consistent with a company's
overarching mission statement.
Marketing strategy should not be confused with a marketing objective or mission. For
example, a goal may be to become the market leader, perhaps in a specific niche; a mission
may be something along the lines of "to serve customers with honor and dignity"; in contrast,
a marketing strategy describes how a firm will achieve the stated goal in a way which is
consistent with the mission, perhaps by detailed plans for how it might build a referral
network, for example. Strategy varies by type of market. A well-established firm in a mature
market will likely have a different strategy than a start-up. Plans usually involve monitoring,
to assess progress, and prepare for contingencies if problems arise.
Things are easier said than done! To realize our dreams and that also in such a grand manner
is really a tough task. The founders of Flipkart have probably conquered their dreams with
the amazing success of Flipkart. Flipkart is something which has really opened up the Indian
e-commerce market and that also in a big way.
Diversity of Strategies
Marketing strategies may differ depending on the unique situation of the individual business.
However, there are a number of ways of categorizing some generic strategies. A brief
description of the most common categorizing schemes is presented below:
Strategies based on market dominance
5 | Page
In this scheme, firms are classified based on their market share or dominance of an industry.
Typically there are four types of market dominance strategies:
Leader
Challenger
Follower
Nicher
Entrant Strategies
According to Lieberman and Montgomery, every entrant into a market whether it is new or
not is classified under a Market Pioneer, Close Follower or a Late follower
Pioneers
Market Pioneers are known to often open a new market to consumers based off a major
innovation. They emphasise these product developments, and in a significant amount of
cases, studies have shown that early entrants or pioneers into a market have serious
market-share advantages above all those who enter later. Pioneers have the first-mover
advantage, and in order to have this advantage, business must ensure they have at least one
or more of three primary sources: Technological Leadership, Preemption of Assets or Buyer
Switching Costs. Technological Leadership means gaining an advantage through either
Research and Development or the learning curve. This lets a business use the research and
development stage as a key point of selling due to primary research of a new or developed
product. Preemption of Assets can help gain an advantage through acquiring scarce assets
within a certain market, allowing the first-mover to be able to have control of existing assets
rather than those that are created through new technology. Thus allowing pre-existing
information to be used and a lower risk when first entering a new market. By being a first
entrant, it is easy to avoid higher switching costs compared to later entrants. For example,
those who enter later would have to invest more expenditure in order to encourage customers
away from early entrants. However, while Market Pioneers may have the highest probability
of engaging in product development and lower switching costs, to have the first-mover
advantage, it can be more expensive due to product innovation being more costly than
product imitation. It has been found that while Pioneers in both consumer goods and
industrial markets have gained significant sales advantages, they incur larger disadvantages
cost-wise.
Close Followers
Being a Market Pioneer can more often than not, attract entrepreneurs and/or investors
depending on the benefits of the market. If there is an upside potential and the ability to have
a stable market share, many businesses would start to follow in the footsteps of these
pioneers. These are more commonly known as Close Followers. These entrants into the
market can also be seen as challengers to the Market Pioneers and the Late Followers. This is
because early followers are more than likely to invest a significant amount in Product
6 | Page
Research and Development than later entrants. By doing this, it allows businesses to find
weaknesses in the products produced before, thus leading to improvements and expansion on
the aforementioned product. Therefore, it could also lead to customer preference, which is
essential in market success. Due to the nature of early followers and the research time being
later than Market Pioneers, different development strategies are used as opposed to those who
entered the market in the beginning, and the same is applied to those who are Late Followers
in the market. By having a different strategy, it allows the followers to create their own
unique selling point and perhaps target a different audience in comparison to that of the
Market Pioneers. Early following into a market can often be encouraged by an established
business product that is threatened or has industry-specific supporting assets.
Late Followers
Those who follow after the Close Followers are known as the Late Entrants. While being a
Late Entrant can seem very daunting, there are some perks to being a latecomer. For example,
Late Entrants have the ability to learn from those who are already in the market or have
previously entered. Late Followers have the advantage of learning from their early
competitors and improving the benefits or reducing the total costs. This allows them to create
a strategy that could essentially mean gaining market share and most importantly, staying in
the market. In addition to this, markets evolve, leading to consumers wanting improvements
and advancements on products. Late Followers have the advantage of catching the shifts in
customer needs and wants towards the products.When bearing in mind customer preference,
customer value has a significant influence. Customer value means taking into account the
investment of customers as well as the brand or product. It is created through the perceptions
of benefits and the total cost of ownership. On the other hand, if the needs and wants of
consumers have only slightly altered, Late Followers could have a cost advantage over early
entrants due to the use of product imitation. However, if a business if switching markets, this
could take the cost advantage away due to the expense of changing markets for the business.
Late Entry into a market does not necessarily mean there is a disadvantage when it comes to
market share, it depends on how the marketing mix is adopted and the performance of the
business. If the marketing mix is not used correctly despite the entrant time the business
will gain little to no advantages, potentially missing out on a significant opportunity.
Online Advertising
The number of internet users is on a rapid rise worldwide and is used by people of all age and
types. Internet has become a major medium for communication, entertainment and is in the
process of replacing traditional entertainment, promo products, and informative Medias.
Some businesses are finding that handing out a promo product such as pens, business cards,
and mugs are too costly and yield little results. Likewise, traditional marketing forms such as
television, radio, newspaper, magazines, etc., are becoming a thing of the past.
Internet has also become a major and effective medium for advertising and it has be predicted
7 | Page
that the online advertising and marketing is soon going to replace the advertising through
traditional medias such as television, radio, newspaper and magazines. I have picked around
10 advantages of online advertising (not in that order) when compared with the traditional
offline advertising.
1) Wider Coverage
The online advertising gives your ads a wider coverage and this globally wider coverage
helps in making your advertisements reach more audiences, which may ultimately help you in
getting better results through your online advertising campaign.
2) Targeted Audiences when compared with offline advertising, online advertising always helps
you to reach the targeted audience and this helps in making your campaign more profitable
and getting more relevant leads.
3) Affordable
Another main advantage of online advertising or marketing is the much affordable price when
compared with the traditional advertising costs. With a much lesser cost you can advertise on
the net for a wider range of audience and geographical locations.
4) Easy to Track and Measure Conversion
Measurability and easiness to track the conversion makes online advertising miles ahead on
the traditional advertising methods. A lot of effective analytics tools are available to measure
online advertising campaigns which help in more improvisation of the ads.
8 | Page
5) Speed
Online advertising is much faster than offline advertising and you can start sending out your
ads to a wider audience, the moment you start your advertising campaign.
6) Informative
In online advertising, the advertiser is able to convey more details about the advertisement to
the audience and that too at relatively low cost. Most of the online advertising campaigns are
composed of a clickable link to a specific landing page, where users get more information
about the product mentioned in the ad.
7) Flexible Payment
Payment flexibility is another added advantage of online advertising and marketing. In offline
advertising you need to pay the full amount to the advertising agency irrespective of the
results. But in online advertising there is the flexibility of paying for only qualified leads,
clicks or impressions.
8) Better ROI
Since online advertising is mainly focused on performance based payment, you ROI is sure to
be far better when compared with offline advertising.
9) Easy Audience Engagement
Online advertisement makes is easy for the audience to engage with your ads or products. As
an advertiser we would be able to get more feedback from the audience and thereby improve
the quality of our ads going forward.
10) Better Branding
Any form of advertising helps in improving the branding and online advertising stands a
notch high in improving the branding of your company, service or product.
Flipkart being an online mega store advertises its products and the offers in different internet
sites, screenshots of which are being shown below
9 | Page
COMPANY PROFILE
Flipkart was co-founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in Oct 2007. Both are graduates
from IIT-Delhi and have prior work experience in Amazon.com They both were solid coders
and wanted to open a portal that compared different e-commerce websites, but there were
hardly any such sites in India and they decided to give birth to their own e-commerce venture
- Flipkart.com
Thus was born Flipkart in Oct 2007 with an initial investment of 4 lac (co-founders savings).
It was never going to be easy since India has had bad past experiences with e-commerce
trading. It was not an easy segment to break into, people were very particular in paying
money for something which they had not seen and received. The trust was missing in the
Indian customers. So what Flipkart had to do was to instill trust and faith in their customers.
And they did exactly the same, will discuss more on how they did so later in the post.
Flipkart began with selling books, since books are easy to procure, target market which reads
books is in abundance, books provide more margin, are easy to pack and deliver, do not get
damaged in transit and most importantly books are not very expensive, so the amount of
money a customer has to spend to try out one's service for one time is very minimal. Flipkart
sold only books for the first two years.
Flipkart started with the consignment model (procurement based on demand) i.e. they had ties
with 2 distributors in Bangalore, whenever a customer ordered a book, they used to
personally procure the book from the dealer, pack the book in their office and then courier the
same. In the initial months the founder's personal cell numbers used to be the customer
support numbers. So, in the start they tried their best to provide good service, focus on the
website - easy to browse and order and hassle-free, and strove hard to resolve any customer
issues. Since there were not any established players in the market, this allowed them a lot of
space to grow, and they did in fact grew very rapidly.
Flipkart had a revenue of 4 crore in FY 2008 - 2009, 20 crore in FY 2009 - 2010, 75 crore in
FY 2010 - 2011, and the revenue for FY 2011 - 2012 which ends on 31 Mar 2012 is expected
to be 500 crore. This is indeed a massive growth. The company targets revenues of 5000 crore
by 2015.
10 | P a g e
The company started from 2 employees and now has around 4500 employees.
Flipkart started with consignment model as discussed above, since most of the customer issues
like delivery delays etc. result from procurement model, the company started opening its own
warehouses as it started getting more investments. The company opened its first warehouse in
Bangalore and later on opened warehouses in Delhi, Kolkatta and Mumbai. Today the company
works with more than 500 suppliers. As on date more than 80% orders of Flipkart are handled
via warehouses which help in quick and efficient service.
A humble beginning from books, Flipkart now has a gamut of products ranging from: Cell
phones, laptops, computers, cameras, games, music, audio players, TV's, healthcare products,
washing machines etc. etc. Still, Flipkart derives around 50% of its revenue from selling books
online. Flipkart is the Indian market leader in selling books both offline and online, it enjoys an
online share of around 80%. The electronic items have a large number of players like Naaptol,
Letsbuy, Indiaplaza, Tradus, Infibeam, Yebhi etc. The electronic market share is distributed
among them in different unknown proportions.
India has around 13.5 crore internet users today where as the number of homes with Cable and
Satellite (C&S) television is 10.5 crore. The expected internet users will reach a figure of 30
crore by 2014 and C&S homes are expected to be 14 crore by 2014. Thus India has a
tremendous internet growth and with the customers getting accustomed to e-commerce, the
future of e-commerce sector is definitely rosy. An approximated 25 lac people have transacted
online this year, the number is all set to increase with time.
Also to mention most of the Flipkart customers use internet from PC's/Laptops to order goods. The
use of mobile internet is very less at the moment, but with the advent of smart phones the use of
mobile internet for e-commerce transactions will soar with time. India has 8 crore mobile net users
at the moment, the number is expected to swell to 22.5 crore by 2014.
Flipkart has since then raised two rounds of funding from venture capital funds Accel
India (in 2009) and Tiger Global Management (up to the tune of US$10 million) (in
2010).
Private equity firms Carlyle and General Atlantic are in talks to jointly invest about
$150 million to $200 million in Flipkart, according to sources.
11 | P a g e
Acquisitions:
2010: WEREAD, a social book discovery tool. The stated goal was to give Flipkart a social
recommendation platform for buyers to make informed decisions based on recommendations
from people within their social network.
2011: Mime360, a digital content platform company.
2011: Chakpak.com is a Bollywood news site that offers updates, news, photos and videos.
Flipkart acquired the rights to Chakpaks digital catalogue which includes 40,000
filmographies, 10,000 movies and close to 50,000 ratings. Flipkart has categorically said that it
will not be involved with the original site and will not use the brand name.
2012: Letsbuy.com is India's second largest e-retailer in electronics. Flipkart has bought the
company for an estimated US$ 25 million.
Great customer service: Flipkart users are more satisfied than that of their competitors.
Great customer service has been its hallmark.
Easy to use website, hassle free payment system: The user interface is sleek and easy to
use.
Cash on delivery/Card on delivery mode of payment: This has been a major instrument
in Flipkarts success. Almost 60% of its sales happen through this mode. Cash on
delivery created trust in the minds of Indian customers who were always weary of
making payments online.
Focused on user experience: Every other e-commerce site, tried to cram the maximum of
amount of information possible into every single page whereas Flipkart focused on providing
only the relevant info
12 | P a g e
They will look at bigger investments in their supply chain and technology.
Investment will be made in large warehouses and increased automation of their process,
so that the product is not delayed.
They intend to enter in to various new categories and expand their current categories as
well.
Everything except for groceries and automobiles will be available on Flipkart in future.
To go further in the value chain, Flipkart is looking at associations with a larger number
of suppliers and partners, both nationally and internationally.
Threats in future:
There are no major foreseeable threats in the future. The company has built a great brand name,
they just have to maintain and enhance the same. Need 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 Flipkart is
a respected Brand name in India and should be able to compete with Amazon. Amazon being a
very big company can bring in serious competition to Flipkart, since Amazon can bear more
losses in the beginning to gain customer base. But again Indian market is growing at a rapid
pace as access to internet increases and people become more aware of e-commerce sites and
start trusting the same; hence Indian market is sufficiently big at-least for these two giants to coexist beneficially.
13 | P a g e
India has an internet user base of about 354 million as of June of 2015. Despite being the
second largest user base in world, only behind China (650 million, 48% of population),
the penetration of e-commerce is low compared to markets like the United States (266 M, 84%),
or France (54 M, 81%), but is growing at an unprecedented rate, adding around 6 million new
entrants every month. The industry consensus is that growth is at an inflection point.
In India, cash on delivery is the most preferred payment method, accumulating 75% of the eretail activities. Demand for international consumer products is growing much faster than incountry supply from authorized distributors and e-commerce offerings.
Largest e-commerce companies in India are Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon India, Paytm.
Things are easier said than done! To realize our dreams and that also in such a grand manner is
really a tough task. The founders of Flipkart have probably conquered their dreams with the
amazing success of Flipkart. Flipkart is something which has really opened up the Indian ecommerce market and that also in a big way. Flipkart was co-founded by Sachin Bansal and
Binny Bansal in Oct 2007. Both are graduates from IIT-Delhi and have prior work experience in
Amazon.com They both were solid coders and wanted to open a portal that compared different
e-commerce websites, but there were hardly any such sites in India and they decided to give
birth to their own e-commerce venture - Flipkart.com
This project on Advertising strategies used by Flipkart will help us to know the approaches and
the importance of advertising in the field of ecommerce. People getting affected by it and the
result getting out of it will be in front of us with this study. What people think about
ecommerce, flipkart and there responses on
15 | P a g e
Flipkart is a private company founded by Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal. Established in the
year 2007, it deals with e-commerce. The company website is one of the most popular
websites in India and has an employee count of more than ten thousand. Its slogan, The
Online Megastore is very apt and popular. As Indians are being accustomed to online
purchases, they have contributed towards the success of this online website. Flipkart is no
longer just a shopping website; it has become the heart and soul of the shopaholics.
People have started feeling that this online portal is giving more choices in products than
others. In a recent development, the Indian Textile Ministry has signed with Flipkart a
memorandum of understanding. Under this MOU, the handloom weavers will get an easy to
use platform through Flipkart to display their products and conduct sales. Flipkart will also
provide infrastructural support to the weavers. However, this move has been made for the
growth of handloom industry but it will also benefit the website. To associate with any
government project is in itself a testimony to their reputation.
Some of the companys key competitors are:
Snap Deal
e bay
Naaptol
HomeShop18
Jabong
Yebhi
amazon
Indiaplaza
Infibeam
Letsbuy
Myntra
Washing machines, air conditioner, life style products, stationary supplies, cell phones,
computers, calculators, microwave ovens, water purifiers, laptops, cameras, audio players,
products relating to health care, dishwashers and e-books. Products sold on Flipkart have the
same warranties of the brand if sold outside in a showroom.
It has recently launched its personal product range called DigiFlip. Under this brand, it
offers products like computer accessories, camera bags, headphones and pen drives. In July,
Flipkart introduced its own tablet phones and networking router under its personal range
DigiFlip.
On February 5, 2014 in a special tie up with Motorola Mobility, Flipkart has provided a
platform for the launch of Moto G. Online shoppers went crazy with the unveiling of this
smart phone. This awe-inspiring response resulted in the sales of nearly 20,000 mobiles in a
few hours. Continuing their association, Moto X, an Android Smartphone, was introduced
on March 19.
On May 13,Moto Ewas launched at the same site triggering the same response. Continuing
this success story Flipkart in a tie up with Xiaomi Techintroduced Xiaomi Mi3 on its
platform. In the first phase on22nd July all the phones were sold in just 39 minutes and in the
2nd phase on 29th July the sold out was complete in only 5 seconds. On 5th August the sale was
completed in just 2 seconds. This amazing response and hyper mania has helped in giving
Flipkart an immense lift up.
At first Flipkart started its operations on the consignment model in which they personally
bought the book and couriered it. Later they opened many warehouses where the goods were
stored safely. The first warehouse was opened in Bangalore and later in Delhi, Mumbai,
Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Noida and Kolkata. As of today, more than five hundred suppliers
are working for Flipkart. At least 80% of the orders placed are handled and controlled via
warehouses. Shipping companies and courier companies are the real mediators in this setup.
The quick and well-organized service is the reason why the company has been able to put its
17 | P a g e
mark on the Indian market. Their delivery network is spread over thirty-seven cities with
delivery being possible in any nook and corner.
18 | P a g e
To increase Traffic and boost sales and revenue through integration of Mobile Apps, Display,
Pay Per Click and Search Engine Optimization.
STRATEGY ADOPTED:
Google Ad words
Remarketing activates if customer visit site and Clicks any display / Search ad.
19 | P a g e
Fair Tale
No Kidding, No Worries
Shopping ka Naya Address
Shop Anytime, Anywhere
Big Billion Day , Singles Day .
TV Commercial Strategy
1.
1. Category Focused FB page i.e books, gaming, fashion etc, which is for building
engagement with fans.
2. Deals and Offers based FB Page which is for customer acquisition.
3. Likes- 3.3 million
4. Seasons to Festivals or Birthday based Cover Photos.
5. Updates on new Products and Customer queries.
20 | P a g e
1. Follower -160 K
2. Updates on new Product, Offers and Discounts using appealing Videos and Images.
3. Tech @ Flipkart exclusive channel on tech updates.
4. Running Product / Services based contest Like Flipkart First, AcerA1 on Flipkart.
5. Avg 2-3 Products offers / launch based post per day basis.
6. Flipkart Support Exclusive Channel on queries Solution.
7. Flipkart Offers Special offers based channel.
8. 24*7 Customer Service Channel.
9. Real-time Connect.
10. Response on the query is on real time.
YouTube Strategy
Pinterest Strategy
21 | P a g e
1. Followers- 500 k
2. 1-2 Post on Per day basis.
3. Less focus on deals / offers.
4. More focus on Company Updates, Product Launch Updates besides, Festive
/season/customer mood based posts.
5. Focus is on more on engagement and brand building rather customer acquisition.
6. Interaction / Engagement with the follower is the area of improvement.
Content Marketing Strategy
22 | P a g e
23 | P a g e
LITERATURE REVIEW
Flipkart is a company which revolutionised the e-commerce sector of India and in an absolute
sense it entails no introduction as such. The year 2007 witnessed the landmark of Flipkart
being founded by two employees of Amazon.com Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (the
two are not related, the common surname is merely a beautiful and confusing coincidence).
The two studied together in one of the most reputed technical institutes of Nation that is IIT
Delhi and further worked in Amazon, the international giant of e-commerce.
[CNN ; 2010 ; SACHIN BANSAL]A simple desire to create a tailor-made product for the
Indian consumer has grown into something beyond what we imagined. Sachin muses.
However, its pretty interesting to know that Flipkart was supposed to be a comparison portal
for e-commerce sites. But then the founders realized that there werent enough e-commerce
sites to be compared! And hence it sparked that why not an e-commerce site itself?This is
how Flipkart came into existence. Within this short span of 5 years (2007 to 2012) Flipkart
has grown tremendously. One of the most inspiring and amusing facts about Flipkart is that it
was started on a personal investment of merely INR 4,00,000 (though some sources claim it
to be INR 5,00,000). It clearly exhibits the confidence of the founders and expresses that they
24 | P a g e
knew what they were doing.When we started e-commerce, it was a dead sector, we went to
VCs and everybody said basically, this is not the sector we invest in. If you open a travel
company, I will probably give you money. Said Binny Bansal in an interview with CNN.
Growth of Flipkart:
[Sachin Bansal, CEO of Flipkart, IANS] We are clocking daily sales of Rs.2.5 crore ($ 5
mn). Our growth rate has been 100 per cent quarter on quarter,.This financial year, they
expect to show investors Rs 2,500 crore in revenues, a 400 percent growth over last years
numbers. Nearly 5,000 people, including contractors, work for them. Their closest
competitors make do with 700-800 people.In the BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange) list of MID
CAP Companies Market Capitalisation we can list those BELOW 4350 odd crores as a
comparison, since Flipkart is valued at 1B$.In simple language Flipkart is more valuable than
Patni, Bata India, Tata, Tele, naukri.com, Indiabulls, Real Estate, UTV Software, JET
AIRWAYS, HT Media (Hindustan Times), Jubilant (Dominos Franchisee in India), Shoppers
Stop, EDUCOMP, India Infoline, DENA Bank, and TV18 to name just a few. These were a
few figures, data and facts which make us realize the worth of Flipkart and how it inflated to
become Indias best e-commerce site within a minuscule period of five years. Its influence
and grip in the Indian market is fortified by the news that its the only threat to Amazon to set
a base in India.
[SACHIN BANSAL, FLIPKART,2010, CNN] Last year, we did about USD 100 million in
sales. Can we be profitable at USD 100 million of sales? Yes, definitely, it is a pretty decent
amount of sales. But what do we want to be? We want to be profitable at USD 2 billion of
sales or USD 3 billion of sales. That is where we want to turn profitable. We see market size
at that level, so it will probably be very stupid of us to be thinking about profitability at such
small scale.
Several researchers have carried out studies in their effort to examine consumers
online buying behavior. For example, Bellman et al (1999) investigated various predictors fo
rwhether an individual will purchase online. These authors concluded that demographic
variables, such as income, education and age, have a modest impact on the decision of
whether to buy online, whereas the most important determinant of online shopping
was previous behavior, such as earlier online purchases. This is consistent with Forrester
Research which proved that demographic factors do not have such a high influence on
technology as the consumers attitudes do (Modahl, 2000). Steinfield and Whitten (1999)
suggested that the combination of the Internet, plus physical presence, provides more
opportunities
to
capture business than the onlineonly presence, because they can provide better prepurchase and postsales services to lower co
nsumer transaction cost and build trust in online stores.However, it is worth mentioning that
beliefs and attitudes that are found in the stage prior to the adoption of e-commerce are
different to those in the post-adoption stage (Gefen etal,2003; Venkatesh and Brown,
2001; Yu et al, 2005).
25 | P a g e
Concerning the factors that influence or hinder online shopping, Ernst and Young (2000)
reported that Internet users purchased online because of good product selection,
competitive prices, and ease of use, but were concerned about shipping costs, lack of
opportunity to prior examining the products, as well as, the confidentiality of credit card and
personal information. Know and
Lee (2003) explored consumers concerns about payment security and its relationship to
online
shopping
attitude
and
actual
purchases. Consumers with a positive attitude seem to be less concerned about payment
security. Similarly, popular literature cited ease of shopping comparison, low prices, timely
delivery, convenience, time saving, low shipping costs, improved customer service, tax
exempt status and speedy e-mail response, as key reasons for the increase in online shopping
(Lorek, 2003; Magee, 2003; Maloy, 2003; Retail Merchandiser, 2003).
H O T B A R G A I N S : T I P S T O F I G U R E O U T
T R A P S F R O M T H E R E A L V A L U E D E A L S
SUSHMITA CHOUDHURY AGARWAL, ET Bureau Apr 22, 2013 (The Economic
Times)
Bargain, hot deal, steal... every day consumers are bombarded with hundreds of
seemingly promising offers. However, not every value buy saves money; some can be costly
mistakes.Here's how to figure out the trap from the real deal. It's a great way to save on
interest, particularly if you aren't keen on paying the high rate for revolving credit with your
existing card. However, be warned that such a teaser deal is typically temporary. If you don't
pay the outstanding amount within the offer period, you will be penalized with a higher
interest rate, possibly more than the one on your old credit card.
[MCkensy2012] The Indian e-commerce market was worth 75,000 crore, in 2013, according
to a joint report by KPMG and Internet and Mobile Association of India. India has the
potential to double its economic contribution via Internet, from 1.6 percent GDP at present to
2.8 and 3.3 percent by 2015.
[Roberts, Wallace, Moles 2003, 2010]An understanding of mergers and acquisitions as a
discipline is increasingly important in modern business. A glance at any business newspaper
or business news web page will indicate that mergers and acquisitions are big business and
are taking place all the time.
[Banerjee & Golhar, 1993; Ramamurthy et al., 1999; Webster, 1995], [Dasgupta et al.,
1999] , [Zhu et al., 2002], Competitive pressure has been identified through numerous
studies as an important determinant of IT adoption, whether it is EDI diffusion adoption of IT
innovations [Gatignon & Robertson, 1989; Grover, 1993], degree of computerization or ebusiness adoption. Outstanding planning and execution are essential for a successful strategic
alliance. Integration is reached only after mapping the process and issues of the companies to
be Flipkart - Myntra; From a Merger to an Acquisition 73 merged. Even then just 23% of all
acquisitions earn their cost of capital. When M&A deals are announced, a companys stock
price rises only 30% of the time. In acquired companies, 47% of executives leave within the
26 | P a g e
first year, and 75% leave within the first three years. Synergies projected for M&A deals are
not achieved 70% of the time. Productivity of merged companies can be affected by up to
50% in the first year and financial performance of newly merged companies is often lacking
[Practical guide for Merger and Acquisition, 2009].
[Dedrick & Kraemer, 2002; Sturgeon, 2002] Using the Internet for transactions and
coordination can save time and money on delivery of goods by using rich information flows
to simplify and streamline the flows of physical goods in the supply chain. Finally, firms that
buy and sell in international markets are under pressure from trading partners to adopt ecommerce (especially B2B) to improve coordination with other members of the value chain.
Subsequently Indian e-commerce has grown at a swift pace in the last 5 years from around 15
billion revenues in 2007-2008 to 139 billion in 2012-2013, translating into a compound
annual growth rate [CAGR] of over 56 percent [CRISIL, 2014]. One of the biggest names in
the Online Retail Industry and a leading e-Commerce player in the Country; Founded by
Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal in Bangalore, Karnataka in 2007.Which was started with
initial capital of 4 lakh contributed by the founders, warehouses, offices and delivery centers
across India. With over 17.5 million book titles listed, 16 different categories, more than 4
million registered users and sale of 55000 items a day their operations are simply huge. Had
8600+ employees till December 2013. Had a massive revenue of around 6,100 Crores
[Raman, 2014]. On the other hand Indias largest fashion e-retailer Myntra is aiming for a
valuation of 2,400 crore.
[McKinsey survey of 554 SMEs, 2012] Lack of digital awareness: Only 35 percent of
businesses in India offered online services such as Web presence, compared with an average
of 56 percent in aspiring countries. In an online survey of Indias SMEs in the organized
sector, they cited the lack of education on using the Internet as among the top three reasons
that prevent consumers from using the Internet.
[Sachin Bansal, CEO of Flipkart, IANS,2012] We are clocking daily sales of Rs 2.5 crore
($5 million). Our growth rate has been 100 per cent quarter on quarter,"
[Nangia, IANS,2012] "Right from browsing to delivery, you can track your order. You can
pre-order an unreleased book, get good prices, even the customer service is very strong. Raise
any issue, it's efficiently resolved,".
[Bahri, IANS,2012 ] "No," believes Anuj Bahri of Bahrisons. "There's a huge market for
everyone to co-exist. Besides, Flipkart's market is totally different, young people of 20-25 age
group buy books from them. Some 80 per cent of their business is chic literature. The more
sensible and mature readers will always go to a bookstore,".
Tweets about Flipkart
Flipkart stays connected with its users via twitter, they answer most of the queries put up by
their customers and carefully evaluate all the suggestions which were posted in the twitter
27 | P a g e
which keeps the customers happy and in turn keep the management of Flipkart happy. Some
of the tweets are shown below:
28 | P a g e
Research Methodology
Research Objectives
29 | P a g e
Research Plan
Study of Advertising strategies used by Flipkart to
position itself among Consumers of AMITY
UNIVERSITY, HARYANA
Findings
30 | P a g e
60
90
MALE
FEMALE
We took a survey of 150 respondents, where number of female was 60 and that of male were
90. These consumers were of AMITY UNIVERSITY, HARYANA.
33
27
25
20
19
21
20
MALE
15
15
FEMALE
10
10
5
0
ALWAYS
OFTEN
OCCASIONALLY
RARELY
0 0
NEVER
Frequency of purchase done by Male is higher in comparison to female. Most of the male
consumers purchase occasionally while most of the female consumers purchase rarely from
Flipkart.
Chart Title
60
50
40
30
20
Axis Title
10
0
Interpretation: Most of the consumers came to know about Flipkart through friends
followed by television and online advertisements. This proves that word of mouth strategy by
Flipkart is the most successful means of making people aware about them and their products.
This success can only be gained through satisfied customers who act as advocates for your
products.
35
30
25
20
15
10
MALES
FEMALES
5
0
Males and Females, both purchase everything more of clothes & Accessories.
Males prefer electronic appliances as mobile and other electronics.
60
50
40
MALE
30
FEMALE
20
10
0
INCREASED
DECREASED
REMAIN UNCHANGED
The frequency of purchase for most of the male and female consumers has increased while it
has remained unchanged for most of the consumers.
females
11
14
6
9
12
Delivery Time
No physical experience
Replacement time
Price
Habit of offline
purchasing
lack of immediate
service
lack of trust
3 5
males
Delivery Time
No physical experience
20
25
Price
Habit of offline
purchasing
8
4
Replacement time
lack of immediate
service
21
lack of trust
Delivery time, inability to touch and experience the product online and lack of trust are the
major impediments for consumers of both genders on doing online shopping.
6. How often does the Flipkart promotional scheme on websites influence you to visit
their site?
Always-----Often-----Occasionally-----Rarely-----Never
35
30
25
20
Male
Female
15
10
0
always
often
occasionally
rarely
never
Promotional schemes influence more male consumers than female consumers to visit the
website of Flipkart. The frequency of visit is still very less as most of the male consumers
occasionally visit Flpikart while incase of female consumers it is rare.
40
35
30
25
males
20
females
15
10
0
always
often
occasionally
rarely
never
Male consumers more often go through the product review before making their decision to
purchase than female consumers who occasionally read the product review before taking
their purchase decision. Product review is a kind of word of mouth strategy where product
users leave their review on their experiences with Flipkart.
8.
Cash on delivery
Door step delivery
Quality
Replacement guarantee
Price/discounts
Wide variety
Packaging
Delivery time
Easy to access
Chart Title
25
20
15
10
5
0
males
females
Almost all the factors that Flipkart is focusing onto are of high importance to the consumers
in AMITY UNIVERSITY, HARYANA, while packaging and warranty have average
importance in the decision making before any online purchase they make. Home delivery and
quality of product has the maximum importance while packaging has the least importance for
35
females
22
18
16 16
12
8
7
4
amazon
flipkart
snapdeal
ebay
pepperfry
others
Males and Females both prefer buying from Flipkart and then AmazonSnapdeal..
10. How frequently have you used the ecommerce website for getting
information before shopping at a physical store (always, often,
neutral, rarely, never)
Product specifications
Price comparison among products
Product specification
25
20
15
10
5
0
always
often
neutral
rarely
never
Price Comparision
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
always
often
neutral
rarely
never
LIM
ITATIONS OF THE STUDY:
No
research is complete without admitting the limitations that was
faced while conducting a study which will contribute to present
learning. This study too like the others have certain constrains
which has been discussed below.
1. The study was restricted to Bangalore city only
2. The study is mainly concentrated on Flipkart.com
3. The sample of the size will be limited to time and
resources
4. The information will be collected valid until there is no any
technical change or any innovation
5. The result is assuming that respondents have given
accurate information
Findings
Word of mouth was more influential in promotion as many people was made aware by
their friends.
Most of the consumers are satisfied with the services of flipkart and are willing to
recommend them to make purchases from flipkart.
Except packaging and warranty, all others are considered important in the decision
making of online purchases.
Almost all the factors that Flipkart is focusing onto are of high importance to the
consumers in AMITY UNIVERSITY, HARYANA
The commercials used by Flipkart are effective enough to convey the message since
the ads are interesting enough to gain attention and position itself into the prospects
mind.
Suggestions:
Flipkart has successfully placed itself into the prospects mind making it the Indias largest
online store with huge range of products. But Flipkart still needs to work on their core
competence that is books and stationery items.
With the entry of Amazon.com it will be a huge competitive market for Flipkart and hence
will have to position itself better, as we still see that huge percentage of females are still
unaware of Flipkart. Those female who purchase, has a very less frequency which has
remained unchanged. Therefore they need to get aggressive at providing better services which
can be fulfilled by reducing the delivery time, selling second hand products which will
increase consumers affordability much more and enhance penetration into the market.
They can even have their retail stores which can give an access to consumers to feel and
analyze the products, which will help them win the consumers faith.
Price will still be a factor as amazon being a huge company will use its economies of scale to
remove their competitors from the market; therefore they need to be more competitive on that
aspect. Be very focused on consumers and build amazing experiences for the customers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
WWW.WIKIPEDIA.COM
WWW.YOUTUBE.COM
WWW.THEHINDU.COM
WWW.SCRIBD.COM
Banerjee, Snehamay & Damodar Y. Golhar, EDI Implementation in JIT and Non-JIT
Manufacturing Firms: A Comparative Study International Journal of Operations &
2014
Myron Leonard (2000) Marketing Literature Review. Journal of Marketing: April
14/news/49126133_1_mukesh-bansal-sachin-bansal-flipkart-and-myntra
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Lets-merge-FlipkarttellsMyntra/articleshow/29582969.cms
WWW.IBNLIVE.IN
Arnould,E.J. and Wallendorf, M. Market-oriented Ethnography: Interpretation
Building and Marketing Strategy Formulation, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol.
31 (November 1994), pp. 484
A N A L Y S I S
O F
B E H A V I O U R
Author: Dejan Petrovic
H O T
O N L I N E
B A R G A I N S :
T R A P S
SUSHMITA
C O N S U M E R
T I P S
F R O M T H E R E A L
CHOUDHURY
AGARWAL,
(The EconomicTimes).
T O
F I G U R E
O U T
V A L U E D E A L S
ET Bureau Apr
22, 2013
An
Hill.
Cooper, Donald R. and Schindler , Pamela S. (1999), Business Research Methods,