1. INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & MANAGEMENT, NAVI MUMBAI
A Report on Working of E-Commerce Website
Flipkart
Submitted To : Submitted By :
Mrs.SoumyaGroup No. 3
Bhuvan Arya 88
Amit Sharma 80
Deepak Khuntwal 248
Rahul Hedau 73
Kumar Anupam 63
Anoop Shet 62

2. ABOUT FLIPKART
Flipkart was launched in 2007 with the objective of making books available to everyone who
had internet access.Along with time, it later diversified across various categories including
movies, music, games, mobiles, cameras, computers ,healthcare and personal products
home appliances and electronics.
Flipkart is also the largest online book store in India, with over 11.5 million book titles
available. Currently, Flipkart has registered sales of nearly 2.5 million items across all
categories and sells more than 20,000 units per day or 14 items per minute.
With path-breaking features like Cash/Card on Delivery, 30 Day replacement policy and EMI
options, Flipkart has now made it possible for anyone across the country with internet
access to shop online.
The Flipkart experience is characterized by the intuitive user interface, free shipping and low
prices.
As a testimony to the superior customer experience, the company has consistently recorded
repeat purchase rates of more than 70%.
Backed by a significant funding of $31 million, Flipkart is rapidly expanding its network of
warehouses, distribution centres, procurement operations and 24/7 customer support
teams.
The company even has its own delivery network in 13 cities and is set to expand this to 25
cities by next year. With a team of around 2500 members, the company operates from
offices in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata.
Flipkart At A Glance :-
In Top 30 Webites in India Today.
Type of Business : Online Shopping (E-Commerce)
Founded By : Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal
No of languages available : Multilingual
No of Books Available : 11,50,000
No of visits every month : 8,00,000
Current team strength : 4,500
No of items shipped per day : 30,000
No of cities under coverage : 27+ Cities
Annual Revenue : 75 Crore (2010-11)

3. An Introduction to Management Team :-
Mr Sachin Bansal (CEO & Co-founder): Sachin spent his early years in
Chandigarh. He graduated from IIT-Delhi with a degree in Computer Engineering. In 2006 he
joined Amazon.com in India which he later left to set-up Flipkart.
As CEO, Sachin oversees all the customer facing activities of the company ranging from
technology to marketing. He is also in charge of Flipkart's corporate divisions which include
the finance and legal departments. An avid gaming enthusiast, Sachin likes to spend most of
his free time with his family.
Mr Binny Bansal (COO & Co-founder):Born and raised in Chandigarh, Binny
went on to get a degree in Computer Engineering from IIT Delhi. He had a brief stint at
Amazon before taking the entrepreneurial plunge with Flipkart.
At Flipkart, Binny oversees all operational activities that come into play from the time the
customer places an order till the time of delivery. This spans across divisions like
warehousing, logistics and customer support.
Other Key Executives:
Mekin Maheswari (President, Technology): Mekin completed his B.E. from
PESIT Bangalore in 2002. He started his career with Yahoo! and then went on to join Ugenie
where he created weRead, a successful social network around books.
At Flipkart, Mekin is responsible for overseeing the company’s technological operations.
These include innovation and application of technology in areas starting from supply chain
to website management.

4. Sujeet Kumar (President, Operations): Sujeet completed his engineering
from IIT Delhi. He worked in the KPO industry and orchestrated several freelance projects
before joining Flipkart in 2008.
At Flipkart he is responsible for overseeing supply-chain, warehousing and logistics. He is
also in charge of business development for all categories.
How it all Started:-
1) Founders: The founders of the company Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal 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 Woods'-Leaving Microsoft to change the World per Alexa
traffic rankings, Flipkart is among the top 30 Indian web sites and has been credited with
being India's largest online bookseller with over 11 million titles on offer. Flipkart broke
even in March 2010 and claims to have had at least 100% growth every quarter since its
founding.
2)Acquisitions :- Initially funded by the Bansals themselves with Rs 4,00,000, 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$20 million or Rs 100 Crore) in 2010.
A REVIEW OF SERVICES & PRODUCTS OFFERED BY FLIPKART :-
A)What they do right:-
User Interface:Flipkart has a wonderfully simple user interface that allows loads quickly,
and offers a ‘lite’ version for slower internet speeds too, rather than the flash heavy
interfaces of other e-Commerce websites, that improves the customer experience on
the website.

5. Cash on Delivery, EMI, and 30 day guarantee: The varied payment schemes provided by
the site like Cash on Delivery, EMIs and the 30 day guarantee scheme for products go a
long way in countering the general tendency of the Indian Consumer to shop in
traditional shops than online.
Payment Interface: Rather than going in for the confusing CCAvenue payment gateway
that most e-Commerce websites opt for, Flipkart has a much more reliable Axis Bank
Payment Gateway that is easier to use.
Variety: The most important thing for a book store is the variety. A consumer who finds
a rare title is definitely bound to return back to the website for further orders, and
Flipkart with their variety have gone a long way in ensuring this.
Deliveries and packaging: Flipkart is renowned for its prompt deliveries within the
promised deadline, and most of the time delivers earlier than promised. It is this
customer focused approach that has helped Flipkart keep their noses ahead of the
competition.
Customer Service: Flipkart’s business model is based on repeat purchases and retaining
customers and has built a highly responsive customer service team that responds to all
queries within 24 hours. Their active presence on Social Networking sites and ensuring
timely deliveries, with a smile, go a long way in ensuring success of their business model.
B) THE DOWNSIDE OF BUSINESS OFFERING:-
Search feature: The search feature on the website allows only a basic search, and not an
advanced option that allows you to search by author name or ISBN etc. This proves to be
a hassle when the name of the book is a common name.
Categorizing:Though Flipkart has a visible ‘category’ wise catalogue for their books, it
becomes pretty apparent that most of their titles are not properly catalogued. Buying in
book shops generally happens when the customer spots the book in a particular
category and gets interested in it, despite not having known the book previously.
Flipkart’s poor cataloguing eliminates the opportunity of such buys.
C) THE SCOPE FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT AT FLIPKART:-
International Shipping: A logical step ahead is to move into the sphere of international
shipping – initially with Srilanka and Bangladesh, and start competing with their big
brother, Amazon.

6. Widening of Range in some product categories: There is an obvious scope for
improvement in the product variety in some of the newly launched product ranges.
Customised products and Gifts: One area where Infibeam.com, a competing company
scores over Flipkart is their customised gifts through PicSquare. Though Flipkart offers
an option of a gift wrap and a personal message for a nominal charge, the service is not
quite apparent for first time users. Customized products and gifts is another area where
there is scope for future development.
Same-day-Shipping: Flipkart could have different versions of their website based on the
location of the customer that offer different shipping times for their products. Some of
the bigger cities could soon be equipped with same-day shipping considering that
Flipkart has a strong in-house logistics service.
Product Pages: Flipkart could look at having better product pages for individual items.
Some items like a Cell phone or a camera or a Microwave oven would be better
projected with a 360 degree image viewer. This would offer a more intuitive view for the
consumers than the photographs that are on display now. Flipkart could also look to
develop their product pages in a better manner than they are right now, with lesser
unnecessary data being displayed.
Customised Delivery Dates: As an extension to the gifting service, Flipkart could look at
offering customer chosen delivery dates for the same, beyond a threshold date that
Flipkart can provide.
CONCLUSION:- On the whole, Flipkart, through its methodical approach of expansion of product
categories, rather than starting off as a Jack of all trades is slowly emerging as the Amazon
of the Indian e-Commerce arena. With a strong logistics and customer focused approach,
Flipkart is slowly taking steps into becoming a giant in the e-Commerce space. Future scope
for development includes wider range of products and international shipping etc.
REASONS FOR SUCCESS OF FLIPKART:-
1) In the traditional way, Flipkart also started selling books online as many e-commerce
startups have done, for the simple reason that supply chain dynamics and payment cycle
suits best. So Flipkart scaled the cash on delivery system to retain customers. Pricing right is
also important.
2)To scale sales, one method Flipkart bets is on increasing order value per customer by
offering the customer more selection and relevant uptakes. Giving reason to come back is
very important. The one fix Flipkart has done successfully was building its own delivery in 30

7. cities after finding that once an item leaves the warehouse, the affiliate courier companies
did not deliver to customers. The pilot in Bangalore helped find repeat customers to the
extent of 50%. By 2012, more categories will be added to Flipkart.
3) A misstep that Flipkart took was betting on B2B sales for books. The assumption was that
libraries and universities will buy in bulk. It turned out that the bulk buyers would dictate
terms and so it quickly turned to scale B2C channel, which has proved to be successful.
Scaling technology is also important to cater to growing demand.
INTERESTING THINGS ABOUT FLIPKART BUSINESS MODEL:-
In other words, 20 products per minute.
Clocking daily sales of Rs.2.5 crore ($ 0.5 MN). Growth rate has been 100 percent
quarter on quarter According to Sachin Bansal, CEO of Flipkart.
The interesting part is that around 60 percent of Flipkart's orders are cash or card on
delivery.
The cash on delivery service has helped a lot of traditional consumers turn to online
shopping.
The model has unbolted the lock to a whole new customer base which hasn't been
exposed to the benefits of plastic money as yet or those with a default technological
handicap.
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.
Flipkart's biggest draw has probably been the huge discount it offers -- much to the envy
of offline stores.
Though all bookstores get up to 50-60 percent discounts from publishers, the low
overheads -- one of the numerous virtues of online stores -- enables Flipkart to pass on
the savings in the form of discounts.
Flipkart started with books, but now deals in 12 product categories.
As per data, we have 80 percent share of the online book market, according to Flipkart
CEO.
India is a huge market, there is much scope for online e-stores in future.
According to an Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham)
survey, the online retail market in India may grow to Rs.70 billion (over $1.30 billion) by
2015 from Rs.20 billion in 2011 as internet access improves.
THREATS:-Flipkart works because of discounts. Amazaon can offer greater discounts as it
can take bigger losses being a bigger company. That will change the dynamics.
A LOOK AT SOME OF THE LAYOUTs OF FLIPKART WEBPAGES :-

8. a. Red Arrow: - Product categories offered by flipkart such as books, mobiles TV, Videos &
MP3 Players etc
b. Blue Arrow: - Category of books according to their popularity offered for a quick look &
selection by Flipkart.
c. Green Arrow: Scope for customization for the customer better search results and
filtered display of results.

9. a. Red Arrow: Access to books according to their category, portioning the lot of books on
offer by the nature of the content.
b. Blue Arrow: Top new releases of books by flipkart.com displayed in the form of a list at
one go, to update the user & maintain his curiosity by displaying all the new releases at
one go.
c. Black Arrow: Option of multiple buy at one time through Digital Cart system where a
user can add design add or pare down his purchases and have a look at it before the
final buy.
d. Green Arrow: Option of buying the book now by making the payment online.

10. a. Black Arrow: Option to buy electronic products and at a never before discount more
than retail discount.
b. Red Arrow: Safe & secure shopping maintaining the privacy & security requirement of
online shopping.
c. Green Arrow: 30 days replacement guarantee which gives a sense of confidence to
customers.
d. Blue Arrow: The provision for customer care support service.