The Big Billion Day and the Lessons learnt!

Hi Guys,

‘The Big Billion Day’ will remain a most spoken about term in the Indian E Commerce Space. There are lot of chances as to that a case study would be written about it and lot of analysis would be done as to what went wrong and how it could have been done correctly. Flipkart made a blunder with the sale and it not only backfired on them, but boosted Snapdeal and Amazon by a huge magnitude.

Flipkart claims that it achieved the target of a billion dollar sale, but no one can verify their claims from the outside. If it did achieve, then Flipkart grossly miscalculated the potential they had. This is one problem with most of the flash sales. Big Bazaar had the same problems with their sales during their starting stages. Flipkart already experienced backlash with the flash sales of Xiaomi mobile phones and still I’m not sure as to why they headed for a day sales. A week long sales like what Amazon is doing would have been a better deal.

Another question is as to whether Flipkart made an attempt to fool people with false sales and stock outs. If it did try, then it has done nothing but eroded the trust people had on Flipkart. If it was unintentional, then it is a wakeup call for Flipkart. What the day has done is leave a black mark on Flipkart, but I don’t think people would move out soon. But, if people face the same issue a few times, then surely its going to hit the sales of Flipkart.

Out of the whole issue, Snapdeal has been the biggest gainer. With the dramatic advertisement in Newspapers, Snapdeal just ambushed Flipkart’s advertisement. If claims are true, they had 15 times more visit than a normal day. Snapdeal’s problems lie in the backend. Many people are unhappy with their processing of orders. So, for Snapdeal to set itself up, it needs to correct its backend issues before focussing on Ambushing Flipkart and Amazon.

There are lot of questions hovering on internet as to what would be the impact on Flipkart? I feel that this incident in itself would have a very low impact. Particularly it was a good strategy by Flipkart to apologize to its customers. E Commerce is just booming in India and Customer Loyalty is virtually non-existent in this space. If Flipkart can offer better price than other major players, surely people are going to choose Flipkart. But, as I said earlier, if Flipkart has two or three more incidents like this, it is going to take a hit on them.

The final question that arises in my mind is ‘what is the potential market size of E Commerce in India?’ From the way people flocked Flipkart and other E Commerce sites on Monday, it is humungous. With a country with a population of more than a billion and a country that gets more internet connectivity day by day, a country that gets more comfortable with online banking over time and gets comfortable with buying online every passing minute, it is difficult to predict the size. I think Flipkart created too much awareness on the sale beforehand and it boomeranged back.

It has created a small dent on the face of Flipkart. It is up to Flipkart to bring back its glory or fall back to a stage from recovery is difficult.  It is also a great lesson for other E Commerce players in India.

With Government announcing that it will look into trader’s interests, the space becomes more interesting. Lets see how this space develops over the next few months.

Happy Reading!

Is Flipkart losing its path?

Hi Guys,

Two or three days back, there were many angry views on Flipkart in Twitter. The reason was Flipkart increased the minimum price for Free Home Delivery from Rs. 200 to Rs. 300. There were already a few murmurs here and there and this announcement made e-shoppers fuming.

I still remember my first purchase on Flipkart. How I came to know about the site was far more interesting. It was nearly three years back or might be a little less than that. My dad was searching for a book that was a detailed city map of Chennai. He was not able to get it at most of the shops. A few days before this incident I read one of the Chetan Bhagat’s books and went to his website to see more details about him. That’s when I saw the link for Online Purchase. And so when my dad was searching, I thought why not try it online.

Of the two or three sites (that were actually referring to Chetan Bhagat’s books) Flipkart had the book my dad wanted and that was the first purchase. Its value was Rs.240. No discount was given for the book. Anyway we were impressed with the packing and my dad was not able to believe the service.

Days went by and I bought quite a lot of books at Flipkart. I started referring the site to my friends too (Flipkart was not advertising then). My classmates turned out to be a big customer for Flipkart in the following time (particularly during the Placement season). The free home delivery price was Rs. 100 then.

Next story is How I moved out of Flipkart. I can’t say I moved out completely, but then I detached myself from Flipkart Books service. The reasons were simple. I was able to find books at a cheaper price in some other sites. Sites such as Junglee, provided a comparison and gave the best offer. There were sites which gave Free Home Delivery for literally everything they sold.

Still, I made my brother buy his mobile phone through Flipkart and recently I too got it via Flipkart. In terms of mobile phones or electronic gadgets, I think Flipkart is still a very competitive one.

But in terms of books, which was their starting point, I think they are slowly losing their path. Most of the books cost below Rs. 300, so who will buy the books from Flipkart. The price might be cheaper than the book at a bookstore, but still to a customer, Rs. 30 seems to be a big value. And most of the other e-stores offer at a very less price.

And there has been many other complaints too. Some of the goods, they display as In Stock are actually Out of Stock. After making the order, someone calls you after a week and say that it is unavailable. How terrible will it be? It is happening particularly in the case of highly expensive low moving products. This makes the higher end customers move out.

On the whole, it seems like the biggest online store of India, that set example for many others is slowly losing its path. With competition coming in from various other sites in many parameters, if Flipkart doesn’t respond there is a huge chance of the company being overtaken by some other e-store.

Happy Reading!!!