Flipkart Saga: Chutzpah To Business Acumen

With its eye-popping success in the considerably short journey of seven years, Flipkart has put its founders on the same league as IT honchos. Media is full of rose-tinted stories about the e-tailer and India’s new-found heroes Sachin and Binny Bansal. The duo share a common family name but aren’t related to each other in any other way from their passion, sharp business acumen and knowledge about the country’s recent obsession with e-commerce; the Bansals are the new idols of the young India.

Recently Flipkart founders, who are also former Amazon employees, announced that their company had raised a fresh round of funds up to $1 billion while trying to use all unconventional methods to check the aggressive expansion plans of biggies such as Amazon. This has added more fuel to the fire of e-commerce competition.

The recent success story what with the Bansals holding 15% collective stake in the company, has put their value at a total of Rs 6000 crore, getting them a ‘gatecrash’ entry into the top league of personalities that occupy the crème de la crème layer in the business sector.

IIT-Delhi graduates, Sachin and Binny Bansal started Flipkart in 2007 after they quit their jobs at Amazon. The journey that began with a small investment of Rs 4 lakh seemed like a speck on India’s e-commerce dreams with no tangible signs being seen of this model staying afloat through the days of bad economy, let alone being a whopping success.

According to them, Flipkart turned into a success by way of leveraging on what was seen as ‘bad service’ done by other companies. While this left a whole new void in the e-space, Flipkart built its trust and faith in people’s minds and lives, carefully placing the building blocks. Initial hiccups apart, Flipkart had its mind set on what it aimed at doing. Best service, best prices and acting upon customer feedback without dodging responsibilities.

Flipkart’s success story is not just a fairy tale. It’s a ‘fair’ tale too.

For any e-commerce venture to be a success in India, which presents a very varied and diversified market working as a cauldron where a thousand cultures have come to boil, unifying them has been a challenge. And the Bansals seem to have had the finger on the pulse of people, reading every vibration just right.

Flipkart’s ‘success’ takeaways are simple and essential, but the complexities in the marketplace make them a hard goal to accomplish.

What did Flipkart do differently that the other e-commerce ventures didn’t pick up?

Well, for starters, here are some pointers.

‘Positive’ energy

Even in this era of the Internet where human interactions, family meetings and long drawn business decisions seem almost impossible; the word is ‘word of mouth’ publicity. When buying, people still think and research in a conventional way. Having positive feedback backing up your service is essential and make sure you have loads of happy customers who will speak good about you!

Innovation: Do the ‘do’, differently!

This one you have heard since long. Be innovative. Offer something that isn’t run of the mill so that the customer is pleased in entirety with the concept, experience, and the service. Redressal mechanisms are a must, and should be considered the most important.

Customer is ‘kin’

Bansals often said they treated their customers like members of the family. If your e-commerce venture is B2C model, you better pull up your socks and ensure the hands that feed you, are the ones which are well-cared for. Those hands are capable of catapulting you to the top!

Service is key; not discounts

Though discounts do get the eyeballs stationed on your website, bad service can mar your reputation beyond comprehension because social networking sites give ample opportunities for people to register their displeasure. Don’t be so keen on getting people to grab the stuff with less much, as much as they would want to receive good quality material/goods.

Don’t play safe and sorry

The most important lessons in both life and business come during tough times. Better times get you to sail through without as much as a basic takeaway. You float in success and you don’t know what’s holding you up. Only when you begin to drown, do your defences kick up and you learn how to swim.

E-commerce is a space that allows lots of experimentation and thus aids some serious takeaways in the form of learning. Don’t aspire to be well-anchored. That way, you may just be reducing your potential to go the whole hog, and make a bigger success story for the country to dote on.