FLIPKART vs AMAZON : CUSTOMER IS THE WINNER FOR NOW

Before we proceed with comparison and the impact of the two in Indian Online Retail Industry, lets understand a few facts about these two online retail giants :

AMAZON :

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos

 

Amazon.com, is an American international electronic commerce company with headquarters in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore, but soon diversified, selling DVDs, VHSs, CDs, video and MP3 downloads/streaming, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewellery. The company also produces consumer electronics—notably, Amazon Kindle e-book readers, Kindle Fire tablets, Fire TV and Fire Phone — and is a major provider of cloud computing services. Jeff Bezos incorporated the company (as Cadabra) on July 5, 1994 and the site went online as Amazon.com in 1995. Bezos changed the name cadabra.com to amazon.com because it sounded too much like cadaver. Additionally, a name beginning with "A" was preferential due to the probability it would occur at the top of any list that was alphabetized.
Amazon has separate retail websites for United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Brazil, Japan, China, India and Mexico, with sites for Sri Lanka and other South East Asian countries coming soon. Amazon also offers international shipping to certain other countries for some of its products. In 2011, it had professed an intention to launch its websites in Poland, Netherlands, and Sweden, as well. ( CREDITS : Wikipedia.org)


FLIPKART



Flipkart Founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal

Flipkart.com is an e-commerce company founded in 2007, by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. It is registered in Singapore, and owned by a Singapore-based holding company. It operates in India, where it is headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka. According to Alexa Internet, Flipkart's website is one of the 10 most visited websites in India. Flipkart has launched its own product range under the name "DigiFlip", offering camera bags, pen-drives, headphones, computer accessories, etc.
Legally, Flipkart is not an Indian company since it is registered in Singapore and majority of its shareholders are foreigners. Because foreign companies are not allowed to do multi-brand e-retailing in India, Flipkart sells goods in India through a company called WS Retail. Other third-party sellers can also sell on the Flipkart platform.  ( CREDITS : Wikipedia.org)

Both the retailers have advantages over each other, with Flipkart enjoying a much bigger market share of Indian E-commerce and Amazon having better international presence and more investment power. Amazon investment power was shown when it announced that it will be investing 2 billion USD in Indian market to strengthen its operations. But our desi Flipkart is not far behind, with its announcement of fund raiser equal to 1 billion USD which it will use to diversify its product range and strengthen its operations and people.

With both the online tycoons investing equally on their infrastructure and product lines, the edge will be gained by the one who also invests on its talent and people training.
Another ground to battle will be number of sellers featuring their products on these market places
Flipkart aims to increase its sellers from current number of 4,000 to 50,000 by the end of next fiscal year. And Amazon already having 8,000 + sellers, aims at improving its count.
To show uniqueness in their product range both flipkart and Amazon are looking at exclusive product launches such as MOTOROLA launching its new line of phones MOTO E, MOTO G and MOTO X exclusively on Flipkart followed by CHina's XIAOMI phones which sold out in a record breaking 5 seconds at the time of launch a few days ago. Amazon also launched Samsung phone and Swipe's Slice tablets exclusively. Flipkart, following the foot steps of Amazon has also launched its new Tablet, though with less success it will the beginning of a new story for in-house branded products being sold at Flipkart.

"We are here for the long term. Our aspiration is to make Flipkart a $100-billion company," said Bansal, 32, whose company clocked $1 billion in sales in March 2014 (Credits : ET)

 "The aim is to have a 30% market share soon," said a senior executive at Amazon  (Credits : ET)

Also Flipkart gained market advantage with its acquisition of Myntra, a leading Fashion Online Retailer in India. This gave Flipkart the opportunity to venture into higher margin garment retailing.

Flipkart is also actively scouting for companies to purchase. "We are looking across the board. We will acquire if we find interesting companies in wearable devices, fashion technology, mobile internet, and robotics and in other areas," said Flipkart's Bansal  (Credits : ET)

Recent launch of its very own tablet , Flipkart has shown its aspiration to own private labels. Though looking at the past business strategy of Flipkart, one can easily spot a lot of similarity to the one of Amazon's, the home advantage is always with Flipkart. To compete with Flipkart and to break its home advantage on customer base, Amazon has to look for a more compelling strategy that will benefit its sellers and its customers. Amazon does have to muscle power to absorb initial losses in margins to gain market share, so we need to wait and watch for the race has just begun.

Flipkart has gone one step further to take the advantage on customer loyalty by launching its Customer Loyalty Program FLIPKART FIRST at just Rs.500 per year. This will motivate customers to hit Flipkart first before checking with other online retailers. Also their new speedy one day delivery system is a big hit among customers. I have personally preferred to pay Rs.90 extra for within a day delivery during my purchases from Flipkart.

With the above being said, the only player who seems to be close enough for a competition with these two juggernauts is Snapdeal. Who will win this race of dominance in the Indian E-Commerce market will be decided only after a few years but for now the clear winner are the customers who get the best out of the two with better deals and a huge product range to choose from.


E-commerce has definitely given a greater and larger access to consumers in terms of reaching out to international brands and feeling west-like! According to recent news, 2010 was the year when India was in full-swing in the E-commerce market and since then it is only reaching bigger heights.
The question that arises here is, why are people turning their backs on the traditional buying mediums like malls and stores? The answer is simple, flexibility. Whereas the nearby book store closes at 9 PM sharp, flipkart works 24*7 on 365 days! Making an order on any e-commerce website is extremely simple. Why get dressed, walk to the store and stand in the queue to make the payment when you can order it in no time sitting at the convenience of your home. Click on buy and TADA, get the product delivered on your doorstep! Not only that you receive heavy discounts, different offers like buy 1 get 2 free etcetera.
India, talking about the number is lagging behind the USA , UK and China but making a fast growth at the same time. Online business is not a new concept to the western people however the concept is a baby here. As reports suggest, by 2025 Indian E-commerce market would touch 260 billion USD.
Lets cross our fingers and hope that the figure is achieved way before 2025 arrives! (CREDITS: EduKart)