eRETAILING: FLIPKART

One of the fundamental issues of eMarketing is how to attract and win over the consumer in the highly competitive Internet marketplace. Also, knowing the factors affecting the online consumer’s behaviour and examine how e-marketers can influence the outcome of the virtual interaction and buying process by focusing their marketing efforts on elements shaping the customer’s virtual experience or the Web experience is quite important.

Flipkart was established 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 they used word of mouth marketing to popularize their company. A few months later, the company sold its first book on flipkart.com - John Wood’s
Leaving Microsoft to Change the World. Flipkart broke even in March 2010 and claims to have had at least 100% growth every quarter since its founding.The store started with selling books and in 2010 branched out to selling CDs, DVDs, mobile phones & accessories, cameras, computers, computer accessories and peripherals, pens & office supplies, other electronic items such as home appliances, kitchen appliances, personal care gadgets, health care products etc.

The E-Retailing form of market was fairly something unheard of to the Indian consumer in 2007. Flipkart which has carved a niche for itself in terms of market share, goodwill and popularity in the online market to the extent that retailers are coming under threat because of its discounts and smooth operations. Started with an initial capital of four lakhs it now aims for annual turnover of around Rs. 4,500 crores. It started off with books and later on started diversifying its market into apparel, electronics, softwares, music, etc. With over seventeen and a half million book titles