FLIPKART INDIA LIMITED

Harpreet
Bansal
CSI-3rd year
09119020

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:

Rupees(in crores)

Fiscal Year

2008-09

20

2009-10

75

2010-11

5000

By 2015(expected)

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.

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

Sachins family is business oriented while Binnys 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 Sachins
community.

IDEA AND CREATION

Working for Amazon for 2 years made them bored as they didnt 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 sellershard 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. EgYahoo 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 BINNYS 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 customers
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.

SACHINS TIP FOR THE COMING

ENTREPRENEURS
"Dont 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..