In a set out to win back customers, Flipkart is now coming up with an initiative aimed at drawing high-spending Indian metro shoppers, who had recently drifted to business rival Amazon, towards sales.
The largest online retail market will be offering a larger selection of branded goods as well as faster deliveries. These promotion innovations have already opened doors for a good $4 billion by investors such as Japan’s SoftBank and China’s Tencent last year. Even as Flipkart originally has eyes for small-town India, the aim this time is to focus on wooing back top-tier spenders.
By means of its flagship festive sales events, Flipkart claims to have grown 85 per cent year-on-year in its e-commerce business in terms of gross merchandise volume (GMV) between April-September 2017. Whereas Amazon accounted for a figure of 72 per cent for the September 2017 quarter.
Flipkart, as it has the advantage of being the local player, stands a strong chance into tier-2 markets. Besides, it is on edge as it only operates in India.
Until 2015, Flipkart had enjoyed a large market lead over Amazon India, after which it withered from a retailed model into an online marketplace. As a result, the customer service, quality of the products and the time taken to deliver the products, everything suffered heavily.
The main rival to Flipkart — Amazon India — worked on doubling down investments in logistics. Over time, it also introduced high-end services like Amazon Prime, which includes quick delivery and video streaming. These moves helped Amazon to capture a large share of the creamy layer of customers who have now become the most frequent buyers too.
The company will explore an omnichannel foray-selling both online and offline- for the grocery category. If US retail giant Walmart’s investment in Flipkart becomes something, it could possibly result in a chain of retail stores in India. Flipkart has also been competing to buy retail chain Vishal Mega Mart from TPG and Shriram Group it has enough fundings. Now, it’s only a question of execution and using technology so as to ensure the best interests of the customers.