A Dissertation Report

On

MARKETING STRATEGY OF FLIPKART

DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL

FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE
OF

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

PREPARED BY:

AYANTIKA SARKAR

VU ROLL NO - PG/VUOAP02/MBA - IVS /NO 105

VU registration no: 00689 OF 2020-2021

Year of registration: 2020-2021

Major specialization: Marketing

Minor specialization: Retail
Name of Institute: EIILM, Kolkata

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

Prof. Chittresh Coomer

(FACULTY, EIILM)

Submitted to

EIILM, Kolkata
Affiliated to (VIDYASAGAR UNIVERSITY)

MAY,2022

1|P a ge
CERTIFICATE OF THE INTERNAL GUIDE

2|P a ge
 DECLARATION

I DO HEREBY DECLARE THAT THIS DISSERTATION ENTITLED “MARKETING

STRATEGY OF FLIPKART” HAS BEEN DONE BY ME AND ALL THE INFORMATION
PROVIDED IS CORRECT AND TRUE TO MY KNOWLEDGE. THIS DISSERTATION IS
SUBMITTED BY ME FOR THE PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE AWARD OF DEGREE IN
‘MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION’. THE DISSERTATION IS EXCLUSIVELY
PREPARED BY ME AND HAS NOT BEEN
SUBMITTED TO ANY OTHER INSTITUTIONS OR PUBLISHED ANYWHERE BEFORE.

AYANTIKA SARKAR
(Student’s name)
VU ROLL NO: PG/VUOAP02/MBA - IVS /NO 105
VU registration No: 00689 OF 2020-2021
MBA, 4th SEMESTER
EIILM, Kolkata

DATE :

PLACE: KOLKATA

3|P a ge
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

At the outset, I would like to thank my parents for their kind cooperation,
encouragement andguidance to complete this project.
I would take this opportunity to thank Prof. (Dr.) R.P Banerjee, Director, EILLM,
Kolkata and other faculty members of the institute for their cooperation and
support. I express mysincere gratitude to Prof. (Dr.) Chittresh Choomer, Faculty,
EIILM,Kolkata who has sincerely provided me with critical suggestions and
valuable insights which enabled me tocomplete this project and bring out this
report in the best way possible.
I am also thankful to all others persons who directly or indirectly helped me to
accomplish my project work.

Date: MAY 2022

Signature: AYANTIKA
SARKAR

4|P a ge
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Serial Number Particulars Page Number

1. Introduction 6-8

2. Significance 9

3. Objectives 10

4. Research Methodology 11

5. Analysis and 12-30

Interpretation

6. Findings of the study 31

7. Conclusion 32

8. Bibliography 33

5|P a ge
 INTRODUCTION
Marketing strategy has the fundamental goal of increasing sales and achieving a
sustainable competitive advantage. Marketing strategy includes all basic, short-
term, and long-term activities in the field of marketing that deal with the analysis
of the strategic initial situation of a company and the formulation, evaluation and
selection of marketoriented strategies and therefore contribute to the goals of
the company and its marketing objectives. A marketing strategy will help you
focus. It will identify the different ways you can talk to your customers, and
concentrate on the ones that will create most sales. It tells you what to say, how
to say it and who to say it to in order to make more sales. Because timing is
critical, it will tell you when to say it too.

The process usually begins with a scan of the business environment, both internal
and external, which includes understanding strategic constraints. It is generally
necessary to try to grasp many aspects of the external environment, including
technological, economic, cultural, political and legal aspects. Goals are chosen.
Then, a marketing strategy or marketing plan is an explanation of what specific
actions will be taken over time to achieve the objectives. Plans can be extended
to cover many years, with sub-plans for each year, although as the speed of
change in the merchandising environment quickens, time horizons are becoming
shorter. Ideally, strategies are both dynamic and interactive, partially planned and
partially unplanned, to enable a firm to react to unforeseen developments while
trying to keep focused on a specific pathway; generally, a longer time frame is
preferred. There are simulations such as customer lifetime value models which
can help marketers conduct "what-if" analyses to forecast what might happen
based on possible actions, and gauge how specific actions might affect such
variables as the revenue-per-customer and the churn rate. Strategies often
specify how to adjust the marketing mix; firms can use tools such as Marketing
Mix Modeling to help them decide how to allocate scarce resources for different
media, as well as how to allocate funds across a portfolio of brands. In addition,
firms can conduct analyses of performance, customer analysis, competitor
analysis, and target market analysis. A key aspect of marketing strategy is often to
keep marketing consistent with a company's overarching mission statement.

6|P a ge
Marketing strategy should not be confused with a marketing objective or mission.
For example, a goal may be to become the market leader, perhaps in a specific
niche; a mission may be something along the lines of "to serve customers with
honor and dignity"; in contrast, a marketing strategy describes how a firm will
achieve the stated goal in a way.

Diversity of Strategies
Marketing strategies may differ depending on the unique situation of the
individual business. However, there are a number of ways of categorizing some
generic strategies. A brief description of the most common categorizing schemes
is presented below:

Strategies based on market dominance

In this scheme, firms are classified based on their market share or dominance of
an industry. Typically there are four types of market dominance strategies:
Leader
Challenger
Follower
Nicher

Entrant Strategies
According to Lieberman and Montgomery, every entrant into a market – whether
it is new or not – is classified under a Market Pioneer, Close Follower or a Late
follower

Pioneers
Market Pioneers are known to often open a new market to consumers based off a
major innovation. They emphasise these product developments, and in a
significant amount of cases, studies have shown that early entrants – or pioneers
– into a market have serious market-share advantages above all those who enter
later. Pioneers have the first-mover advantage, and in order to have this
advantage, business’ must ensure they have at least one or more of three primary
sources: Technological Leadership, Preemption of Assets or Buyer Switching
Costs. Technological Leadership means gaining an advantage through either

7|P a ge
Research and Development or the “learning curve”. This lets a business use the
research and development stage as a key point of selling due to primary research
of a new or developed product. Preemption of Assets can help gain an advantage
through acquiring scarce assets within a certain market, allowing the first-mover
to be able to have control of existing assets rather than those that are created
through new technology.

Thus allowing pre-existing information to be used and a lower risk when first
entering a new market. By being a first entrant, it is easy to avoid higher switching
costs compared to later entrants. For example, those who enter later would have
to invest more expenditure in order to encourage customers away from early
entrants. However, while Market Pioneers may have the “highest probability of
engaging in product development” and lower switching costs, to have the first-
mover advantage, it can be more expensive due to product innovation being
more costly than product imitation. It has been found that while Pioneers in both
consumer goods and industrial markets have gained “significant sales
advantages”, they incur larger disadvantages cost-wise known as Close Followers.
These entrants into the market can also be seen as challengers to the Market
Pioneers and the Late Followers. This is because early followers are more than
likely to invest a significant amount in Product Research and Development than
later entrants. By doing this, it allows businesses to find weaknesses in the
products produced before, thus leading to improvements and expansion on the
aforementioned product.

Therefore, it could also lead to customer preference, which is essential in market

success. Due to the nature of early followers and the research time being later
than Market Pioneers, different development strategies are used as opposed to
those who entered the market in the beginning, and the same is applied to those
who are Late Followers in the market. By having a different strategy, it allows the
followers to create their own unique selling point and perhaps target a different
audience in comparison to that of the Market Pioneers. Early following into a
market can often be encouraged by an established business’ product that is
“threatened or has industry-specific
supporting assets”

8|P a ge
 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

 This study will show the importance of marketing strategies to make any
business profitable and to help them grow in the future , as we all know
how dynamic is our environment.
 This study is important to learn business successful by knowing the
marketing strategies of different successful companies.
 This study will help entrepreneurs to plan their business by adopting
meaningful strategies inthe long run.

9|P a ge
 OBJECTIVES

1. To know the Marketing and advertising strategies used by Flipkart.

2. To know the Importance of Advertising.
3. To analyse the factors and their effect on the Consumers.
4. To examine major challenges faced by Indian consumer while shopping online.
5. Study the future of Indian e-commerce industry.

10 | P a g e
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

“Research Methodology comprises of defining & redefining problems, collecting,

organizing &evaluating data, making deductions &researching to conclusions.”
Research design

The nature of this report is Exploratory. Exploratory research often relies on

secondary research such as reviewing available literature and/or data, or
qualitative approaches such as informal discussions with consumers, employees,
management or competitors, and more formal approaches through in-depth
interviews, focus groups, projective methods, case studies or pilot studies. The
Internet allows for research methods that are more interactive in nature.
Research Instrument

The research instrument used in the project was questionnaire to analyze the
secondary data collected

Sources of data

Secondary data

Secondary data was collected from different websites. This secondary data
formed the conceptual background for the project.
Type of data is both Qualitative as well as Quantitative as the analysis is done
through a questionnaire which has been taken from the website itself.

Research constraints

This study is exploratory and has some limitations that however does not
liquidate the purpose of study
The major limitation of the study is that it is based on secondary data.
The data available may differ from the present scenario.
Even the interpretation done may vary from person to person

11 | P a g e
 ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

COMPANY PROFILE
Flipkart was co-founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in Oct 2007. Both are
graduates from IIT- Delhi and have prior work experience in Amazon.com They
both were solid coders and wanted to open a portal that compared different e-
commerce websites, but there were hardly any such sites in India and they
decided to give birth to their own e-commerce venture - Flipkart.com

Thus was born Flipkart in Oct 2007 with an initial investment of 4 lac (co-founders
savings). It was never going to be easy since India has had bad past experiences
with e-commerce trading. It was not an easy segment to break into, people were
very particular in paying money for something which they had not seen and
received. The trust was missing in the Indian customers. So what Flipkart had to
do was to instill trust and faith in their customers. And they did exactly the same,
will discuss more on how they did so later in the post. Flipkart began with selling
books, since books are easy to procure, target market which reads books is in
abundance, books provide more margin, are easy to pack and deliver, do not get
damaged in transit and most importantly books are not very expensive, so the
amount of money a customer has to spend to try out one's service for one time is
very minimal. Flipkart sold only books for the first two years.

Flipkart started with the consignment model (procurement based on demand) i.e.
they had ties with 2 distributors in Bangalore, whenever a customer ordered a
book, they used to personally procure the book from the dealer, pack the book in
their office and then courier the same. In the initial months the founder's
personal cell numbers used to be the customer support numbers. So, in the start
they tried their best to provide good service, focus on the website - easy to
browse and order and hassle-free, and strove hard to resolve any customer issues.
Since there were not any established players in the market, this allowed them a
lot of space to grow, and they did in fact grew very rapidly.
Flipkart had a revenue of 4 crore in FY 2008 - 2009, 20 crore in FY 2009 - 2010, 75
crore in FY 2010 - 2011, and the revenue for FY 2011 - 2012 which ends on 31 Mar
2012 is expected to be 500 crore.
This is indeed a massive growth more than 500 suppliers. As on date more than

12 | P a g e
80% orders of Flipkart are handled via warehouses which help in quick and
efficient service.

A humble beginning from books, Flipkart now has a gamut of products ranging
from: Cell phones, laptops, computers, cameras, games, music, audio players,
TV's, healthcare products, washing machines etc. etc. Still, Flipkart derives around
50% of its revenue from selling books online. Flipkart is the Indian market leader
in selling books both offline and online, it enjoys an online share of around 80%.
The electronic items have a large number of players like Naaptol, Letsbuy,
Indiaplaza, Tradus, Infibeam, Yebhi etc. The electronic market share is distributed
among them in different unknown proportions.

India has around 13.5 crore internet users today where as the number of homes
with Cable and Satellite (C&S) television is 10.5 crore. The expected internet users
will reach a figure of 30 crore by 2014 and C&S homes are expected to be 14 crore
by 2014. Thus India has a tremendous internet growth and with the customers
getting accustomed to e-commerce, the future of e-commerce sector is definitely
rosy.
An approximated 25 lac people have transacted online this year, the number is all
set to increase with time. Also to mention most of the Flipkart customers use
internet from PC's/Laptops to order goods. The use of mobile internet is very less
at the moment, but with the advent of smart phones the use of mobile internet
for e-commerce transactions will soar with time. India has 8 crore mobile net
users at the moment, the number is expected to swell to 22.5 crore by 2014.

Acquisitions:
2010: WEREAD, a social book discovery tool. The stated goal was to give Flipkart a
social recommendation platform for buyers to make informed decisions based on
recommendations from people within their social network.
2011: Mime360, a digital content platform company.
2011: Chakpak.com is a Bollywood news site that offers updates, news, photos
and videos. Flipkart acquired the rights to Chakpak’s digital catalogue which
includes 40,000 filmographies, 10,000 movies and close to 50,000 ratings. Flipkart
has categorically said that it will not be involved with the original site and will not
use the brand name.

13 | P a g e
Flipkart’s Success Mantra
Great customer service: Flipkart users are more satisfied than that of their
competitors. Great customer service has been its hallmark.
Easy to use website, hassle free payment system: The user interface is sleek and
easy to use.
Cash on delivery/Card on delivery mode of payment: This has been a major
instrument in Flipkart’s success. Almost 60% of its sales happen through this
mode. Cash on delivery created trust in the minds of Indian customers who were
always weary of making payments online.
Focused on user experience: Every other e-commerce site, tried to cram the
maximum of amount of information possible into every single page whereas
Flipkart focused on providing only the relevant info

Future Road Map

They aim at 10 times growth and eyes at $ 1Billion sales by 2015.
They will look at bigger investments in their supply chain and technology.
Investment will be made in large warehouses and increased automation of their
process, so that the product is not delayed.
They intend to enter in to various new categories and expand their current
categories as well.
Everything except for groceries and automobiles will be available on Flipkart in
future.
To go further in the value chain, Flipkart is looking at associations with a larger
number of suppliers and partners, both nationally and internationally.
Threats in future:
There are no major foreseeable threats in the future. The company has built a
great brand name, they just have to maintain and enhance the same. Need to
keep introducing more products, adapting to the changing needs of the customer
with time. The entry of Amazon.com in 2012 in the Indian e-commerce space has
been cited as a big challenge to Flipkart. However Flipkart is a respected Brand
name in India and should be able to compete with Amazon. Amazon being a very
big company can bring in serious competition to Flipkart, since Amazon can bear
more losses in the beginning to gain customer base. But again Indian market is
growing at a rapid pace as access to internet increases and people become more
aware of e-commerce sites and start trusting the same; hence Indian market is
sufficiently big at-least for these two giants to coexist beneficially

14 | P a g e
 COMPANY DETAIL OF FLIPKART

 Type - Private, subsidiary

 Industry- E-commerce
 Founded-2007; 15 years ago
 Founder-Sachin Bansal,BinnyBansal
 Headquarters-Bangalore, Karnataka, India (operational HQ)
 Singapore-(legal domicile)
 Area served-India
 Key people-Kalyan Krishnamurthy (CEO)[1]
 Services-Online shopping
 Revenue-Increase ₹43,615 crore (US$5.7 billion) (FY 2019)[2]
 Owner-Walmart (82.1%),Tencent (5.1%),Tiger Global (4.87%),
Binny Bansal (3.25%),Microsoft (1.46%),QIA (1.43%),Accel (1.32%)
Other (0.47%)
 Number of employees-30,000 (2016)[4]
 Parent-Walmart
 Subsidiaries-Myntra, PhonePe, Ekart,Jeeves, Cleart.

15 | P a g e
 MISSION AND VISION

Vision of the Company

To be the Amazon of India.

Mission of the Company

To provide delightful customer experience.

16 | P a g e
 FINDINGS & ANALYSIS
MARKETING MIX OF FLIPKART :

Flipkart is a private company founded by Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal.

Establishedin the year 2007, it deals with e-commerce. The company website is
one of the most popular websites in India and has an employee count of more
than ten thousand. Its slogan, ‘The Online Megastore’ is very apt and popular. As
Indian’s are beingaccustomed to online purchases, they have contributed towards
the success of this online website. Flipkart is no longer just a shopping website; it
has become the heart and soul of the shopaholics.

People have started feeling that this online portal is giving more choices in products
than others. In a recent development, the Indian Textile Ministry has signed with
Flipkart a memorandum of understanding. Under this MOU, the handloom
weavers will get an easy to use platform through Flipkart to display their products
and conduct sales. Flipkart will also provide infrastructural support to the
weavers. However, this move has been made for the growth of handloom industry
but it will also benefit the website.To associate with any government project is in
itself a testimony to their reputation.

Some of the company’s key competitors are:

 Snap Deal
 E bay
 Naaptol
 HomeShop18
 Jabong
 Yebhi
 Amazon
 Indiaplaza
 Infibeam
 Letsbuy
 Myntra

17 | P a g e
Product in the Marketing Mix Of FLIPKART

Flipkart is an online retailing industry and started its operations with the sale of
books.For two years, it sold only books through its website as the management and
shipmentof books was much easier. After its expansion, it started dealing with
products like aircoolers, Washing machines, air conditioner, life style products,
stationary supplies, cellphones, computers, calculators, microwave ovens, water
purifiers, laptops, cameras,audio players, products relating to health care,
dishwashers and e-books. Products sold on Flipkart have the same warranties of
the brand if sold outside in a showroom.

It has recently launched its personal product range called “DigiFlip”. Under this
brand,it offers products like computer accessories, camera bags, headphones
and pendrives. In July, Flipkart introduced its own tablet phones and networking
router under its personal range “DigiFlip”.

Place in the Marketing Mix Of FLIPKART

Flipkart functions entirely in India and it has its headquarters in the Garden City of
Bangalore in Karnataka. It is owned by a Singapore based company and is
registeredover there. According to India’s foreign policy, a foreign company is not
allowed e- retailing over here. Therefore, in India, Flipkart sells the merchandises
through an Indian company WS Retail. Flipkart also provides its own platform to
other companies who are interested in selling their goods. The website is very
easy and hassle free. Browsing, keeping track of products, getting reviews,
ordering goods and payment methods are very convenient for the individuals.

At first Flipkart started its operations on the consignment model in which they
personally bought the book and couriered it. Later they opened many warehouses
where the goods were stored safely. The first warehouse was opened in
Bangalore and later in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Noida and
Kolkata. As of today, more than five hundred suppliers are working for Flipkart. At
least 80% of the orders placed are handled and controlled via warehouses.
Shipping companies and courier companies are the real mediators in this setup.
The quick and well-organized service is the reason why the company has been

18 | P a g e
able to put its mark on the Indian market. Their delivery network is spread
over thirty-seven cities with delivery being possible in any nook and corner.

Price in the Marketing Mix Of FLIPKART

Though Flipkart started its venture with an investment of just INR 400,000, today
its net worth is nearly 1billion dollars as its sales are increasing day by day. It still
earns revenue of 50% from selling books online.Electronic commerce has become
a huge hitbecause of Flipkart. Its price policy is very flexible because of online
transactions. Amount to be charged is determined after looking at the
innumerable expenses like transport expenses, supplier expenses, packaging
costs, courier charges, shipping cost, office expenses, maintenance expenses,
discount allowances, depreciation,taxes, advertisement expenses and many
other expenses.

Discounts up to 35% are allowed periodically to boost up the sales and maintain
competitive prices. For payments, Flipkart allows credit card transactions, cash
payment after delivery, transaction through debit card, by swiping card on
delivery, vouchers available as e-gift and net banking.

Promotions in the Marketing Mix Of FLIPKART

Flipkart has changed the concept of multi brand retailing of products through
internet in India. Its huge success has proved to be an inspiration for other
companies. It operates mostly through mouth advertising. The satisfied
customers have been their best promoters. To have a firm grip on the online
world Flipkart has used the services of Google Ad-words and SEO. These marketing
tools have made them household names. Downloading the exclusive app of
Flipkart helps in getting alerts about the current offers, order status, price drops,
recent launches and various gift coupons

19 | P a g e
 SWOT ANALYSIS OF FLIPKART

If there was a list of top Indian online companies, then Flipkart will surely be on
top.There are very few Indian companies worth more then 2 billion dollars and
Flipkart as on date is worth more then 11 billion dollars. The company was started
in 2007 by the brothers Sachin and Binny bansal who took it to staggering heights.
This article presents the SWOT analysis of Flipkart.

Strength
India’s Largest E-commerce Retailer: Flipkart is the India’s largest E- commerce
company & had sold GMV (gross merchandising value) of $1 billion till now.
Experienced founders: The Founders of Flipkart, Sachin & Binny bansal areEx-
Amazon employees. Having prior experience in the E-commerce industry helped
the founders to work strategically and differentiate their business in a highly
competitive market.
Acquisition: With its series of acquisitions like Letsbuy.co,, chakpak.com,
weread.com, Mine360 & the recent one Myntra in 2014 has helped the company
to expand in the E-commerce space & used the capabilities andexisting resources
of acquired companies.
High Brand recall: Flipkart has established itself as a renowned E- commerce
company in India through TV ads, online branding and throughits presence on
social media. Brand activities like the “Big billion day” havereally increased the
brand recall of the company.
Own Payment gateway & Logistic arm: Having its own Logistics arm E-kart &
payment gateway Payzippy has helped the company to control its Expenses.
Thereby passing the benefits to the end customers.
Exclusive & broad range of products: From having Exclusive rights to launchsome
products like MotoG MotoX, Xiaomi Mi3 as well as personal designers segments
in garments category, has helped the company to differentiate and localize its
offerings.

20 | P a g e
Weaknesses

Limited Distribution channel reach: Although its logistics arm has kept cost’s low,
the reach has been affected which is a weakness for Flipkart. Due to use of
outsourcing, Global giants like Amazon & eBay can deliver the product anywhere
in the country. However, Flipkart is still struggling inthis field.
Cost of Acquisition: Due to stiff competition in the market & low customer
retention, the cost of Acquisition is high because Flipkart acquires a lot of
customers through online advertising. As per Flipkart data, the company spends
R.s 400/- on acquiring a new customer on an average.
Power in the hand of buyers: Since this industry is flooded with many players,
buyers have a lot of options to choose. Switching costs are also less for customers
since they can easily switch a service from one online retail company to another.
Same products will be displayed in several online retail websites. Product
differentiation is almost absent and the fightthen begins on the basis of price only.

Opportunities
Expansion of business: By targeting other emerging markets company can
increase their revenues as well as it can have Economies of scale.
Expanding their Product categories: This will increase their customer base & at
the same time will reduce the cost of acquisition and customer switch.
Changing mentality of Indian customers: With increasing numbers of customers
getting comfortable with online shopping & increase in numbers of Internet users
in India, there is huge potential in this Industry.
Supply chain: By optimizing their supply chain they can compete with the other
players & can manage the loosing sales on account of not making the product
available due to delivery constraints.
Establishing in other developing economies: Like Amazon, Flipkart can slowly
start expanding out of India and establish operations in other countries as well
which will help improve revenues.
Threats

Competition: Stiff competition from the global players like Amazon, eBay as well
as local player like Snapdeal, Tolexo and Shopclues who are continuously trying to
eat each other’s market share.
Government regulations on the issues related to FDI in multi branding retailhas
been a big hurdle in the success of the E-commerce industry in India.

21 | P a g e
 PESTAL ANALYSIS OF FLIPKART

PESTEL OF FLIPKART
Flipkart PESTEL analysis to identify the primary external environmental forces that
drive itsstrategy and competitive landscape, as well as to support its strategic
decision- making process. Conducting a PESTEL analysis is critical for generating
successful strategies and achieving long-term business objectives as Flipkart com.
strives to extend and exploit its competences and core capabilities.
Political factors
Flipkart's long-term viability and profitability are heavily influenced by political
considerations. As a result of its international presence, the company's sensitivity
to changes in political environments in other countries rises. In a changing
international business world, diversifying systematic risks in a political setting is
critical to success. Thepolitical atmosphere of a country is made up of various
different elements. Flipkart must consider the following political concerns
throughout the strategic planning phase.
Economic factors
Economic factors like as foreign exchange/interest rates, labour market
conditions, inflation, and saving rates, among others, are crucial for Flipkart com.
to understand because they have an impact on the country's overall economic
climate. With a completeunderstanding of the economic environment, Flipkart
can anticipate the growth trajectoryof industry and organisation. In order to make
educated decisions, Flipkart must consider the following economic factors.

22 | P a g e
Social factors
Organizational culture is heavily influenced by cultural conventions, values, and
trends. Flipkart com. can create effective marketing messages and achieve
corporate objectives bystudying demographic trends, power dynamics, customer
purchasing habits, and shared values through a full PESTEL analysis. The data
acquired through sociological and environmental investigations can be used by
Flipkart's marketing department to target specific client groups and increase the
appeal of given products to potential buyers.
Flipkart must examine the following sociological issues when doing a macro-
environmentalanalysis.
Technological factors
Technology is the PESTEL study's fourth component. As a result of rapid
technological innovation and growth over the world, the importance of
understanding technological challenges during the strategic decision-making
process has expanded. Flipkart can benefit from a thorough assessment of the
technical environment by capturing technological trends and gaining specific
commercial advantages like higher profitability, accelerated innovation, and
improved operational efficiency. Flipkart's commercial performance may be
influenced by the technology components listed below.
Environmental factors
As environmental awareness has developed and climatic conditions have altered,
environmental analysis has become an important part of the PESTEL study.
Environmentalnorms, laws, and regulations fluctuate depending on the market.
Because of Flipkart's international presence, these distinctions must be carefully
considered in order to avoid adverse effects. A thorough environmental
assessment is essential before entering a newmarket or launching a new product
line.
Legal factors
"Legal" is the sixth factor in a PESTEL analysis. Flipkart is unable to join a new area
withoutfirst conducting extensive research into the market's legal and regulatory
environment. A careful review of legal risks is necessary to avoid getting into
significant legal trouble.
Ignorance in this area can have negative consequences for Flipkart, such as a loss
of competitive advantage due to intellectual property infringement and a
tarnished organisational image due to violations of consumer, employee, and
environmental protection rules. Flipkart should examine the following legal
considerations when enteringa new market.

23 | P a g e
 BCG MATRIX ITC
BCG Matric is an arranging device that utilizes graphical representations of an
organization’s items and administrations with an end goal to help the
organization choose what it ought to keep offer or put more in. The BCG
development share lattice plots an organization’s offerings in a four square
network, with the y-pivot speaking to rate of market development and the x-
hub speakingto piece of the overall industry. (ROGGIO, 2014) The BCG
development share grid was produced by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
in the 1970s. The four square network consists of Stars, Cash Cows, Dogs and
Question Marks.

In a very aggressive E-trade market of India, organizations are thinking that it’s
difficult to separatetheir offering from others. Flipkart have increased a few
upper hands over others. They have procured organizations like Myntra,
Jabong, Appiterate, Letsbuy, Mine360, chakpak.com, weread and the most
recent one being UPI-based installments start-up PhonePe. These
organizations are helping it in improving its utilitarian capacities. Originators
are Ex-Amazon representative so they have the required know how of e-
trade. Flipkart had gotten $700M of subsidizing a year ago after which its
valuation gone to $15 billion. (Gupta, 2012) It has a fabulous situating in the
mobiles and little machines section.
Stars
An organization’s “Star” items live in the upper left quadrant with high piece of
the pie and high development. As a result of the organization’s generally solid
piece of the overall industry the
organization has a decent focused position? The high development additionally
implies that there is the chance to keep on increasing income and benefits.
(ROGGIO, 2014) For “Star” items, clutch what you have or for some situation
attempt to keep on growing, however this is truly a zone of direct showcasing and
publicizing speculation.
Flipkart’s marketing segment (counting Myntra) and in addition its gadgets
section is a Star in the BCG grid. The reason is that the fragment is developing and
more and more clients are getting acclimated with web purchasing of garments
and gadgets things in India. (Prasad, 2014) Be that as it may, as the market is
gigantic, the piece of the overall industry is less for every E-trade player.

24 | P a g e
Cash Cows
Items in the lower left quadrant are called “Cash Cows.” In these occurrences
the organization hasgenerally great share of the market, yet is confronted with
low development. These are items thatare cash makes, yet they won’t really
take the merchant further, developing income or benefits after some time.
Here the procedure is to reap from these items to contribute somewhere else.
Exploit achievement, yet don’t rest.
The Flipkart cash cows are the books from which it started the career. Flipkart
is assessed to havea one-fifth share of the online retail showcase in India –
how can it plan to hold that share? One isgrow coordination, a center quality
where huge ventures and innovation helped Flipkart turn into the best quality
level in conveyance in India. Flipkart ships books to the majority of India’s
21,000 PIN codes and covers over a hundred urban communities for its
arrangement of books.
Question Marks
With high development and low piece of the pie, items in the upper right are
alluded to as
“Question Marks.” Businesses essentially don’t comprehend what they speak
to regarding conceivable piece of the overall industry or developing benefits.
Notwithstanding the questions, you need to fabricate advancements for these
things, putting resources into publicizing and advancement. These items have
the best potential for the business since there is a chance to catch impart and
to develop to the market. Simply realize that not each “Question Mark” item
willbe effective.
Dogs
Items in dogs quadrant ought to, for the most part, either get no backing or be
stripped — i.e., shut out. The thinking is that contending here will take a
noteworthy interest in time and cash since the organization has low piece of
the pie and must remove deals from contenders who might be better situated
in the market. Consider the people who offer mass-advertise items on
Flipkart, wherein the main genuine approach to contend is to continue slicing
costs, bringing down edge, and profiting for the same measure of exertion.
(India, 2014) So for the Flipkart thereare no dogs, but for the brands that sell
their products on Flipkart can have dogs’ items.

25 | P a g e
 THE MARKETING STRATEGY OF FLIPKART

In 2007, Flipkart was founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. They both are
from IIT Delhi and also have worked in Amazon. In its initial day’s company was
focusing on selling books online but after some time when the company getting
more orders so it also started selling a wide range of products like lifestyle,
Fitness,home décor, appliances, clothing and so many more. In 14 years Company
becomesone of the top online retail giants. In this article, we are sharing some of
the game- changing marketing strategies of Flipkart which help it to becomes the
largest e- commerce platform.

Easy Interface

Flipkart has a very easy and accessible interface so even child can operate it and
buy the products which is one of the essential marketing strategies of Flipkart
because it’s so obvious that customer would never come back if he/she finds so
many steps and procedure for buying any utility.

26 | P a g e
More payment methods

Many online Valuable companies or services like Netflix, Amazon prime accept
payment by digital method or by credit/debit card, and in Indian, so many people
both in urban and rural do not have access to these payment methods and they
canmake a purchase only in cash. Here, Flipkart Makes a move by providing cash
on delivery service and by which more persons can make purchases from Flipkart.
It isone of the best marketing strategies for growing consumers. If you want to
know about customer experience then we recommend you have a look at How to
improveCXM (Customer Experience) Strategy. Flipkart accepts almost all payment
methods.

EMI Facility

Flipkart provides EMI facilities to price-sensitive customers and middle-class

families who hesitate to make a big purchase like smartphones, LED TVs, Home
appliances, and many more. By availing of the EMI facility, they almost convince
the customer to make the purchase and it also builds trust for future prospects.

27 | P a g e
Offering Gift Vouchers /Coupons

When Customer makes a big purchase then Flipkart gives them free gift vouchers
and coupons which benefits the customer in future purchases. You may be
thinkingthat it is a loss for Flipkart so, yes I agree that it is like a loss for Flipkart
but in the future, it would definitely make a remarkable profit for Flipkart because
these gifts vouchers and coupons increasing the engagement of customers with
companies.

Discount facility

The discount facility is also one of the great marketing strategies for growing the
consumer base. By providing some discount to customers, you can certainly make
them your permanent customers because everyone likes to discount no matter
richor poor. In the initial years, If the company bears a discount then in the future
theydefinitely will be the top player in the market and by following this marketing
strategy Flipkart also has became the top player in the online market.

28 | P a g e
Distribution system

Flipkart has more than 20 warehouses in India where it can store products after
getting from the retailer and easily transfer products to the customer. Flipkart
also has motherhubs for packing, branding, sorting, and for other things. Choosing
a good and effective distribution system and chain is the essential marketing
strategy.

Targeting Audience

Flipkart works on human behaviour. In other words, Flipkart gets an idea of the
taste and preference of customer by his/her previous purchases or by his scrolling
time on the website. For an instance, If a customer purchased some kind of mobile
accessories and gadgets in the past so it will be most likely that he /she also
interested in the latest smartphones and electronic gadgets. By this strategy,
Flipkart is dealing in 80 product categories from lifestyle to fitness and from
academic books to furniture.

29 | P a g e
Product replacement facility

Flipkart also provides a product replacement facility if a customer got defective

product or wrong product and credit entire money to the customer’s bank
accountwithin 2 to 3 days and this strategy is also one of the important strategies
if you want to stay in the market for a long run and it also builds customer’s trust.
I

Creative advertisements

Flipkart is now doing creative advertisements for expansion like they use child
actors who imitate like adults and behave like full grown-up man/woman and
theseunique ads definitely catch the attention of viewers and remind them or
aware them of Flipkart. It is one of the unique strategies of marketing which
never done other companies like Flipkart is doing.

30 | P a g e
 FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

 Major reason why people nowadays lean toward internet shopping is they
to do not have to go for shopping and also flexibility is the another that the
online e commerce trade provide us like delivery speed at their earliest.
 Generally customers don't like to be time bound while doing the shopping
which is significant downside of disconnected shopping. A devoted
opportunity to go out and complete it with in a time period isn't
constrained at this point.
 Online retailers make it simple for customer discover the item and get it
without burning through a lot of time and vitality. Simple to think about
items is likewise the factor which prompts lean toward internet shopping
over disconnected for
customer.
 Flipkart faces extreme rivalry from a few organizations that has brought
about the
usage of serious valuing technique.
 Flipkart has kept item costs at sensible and pocket-accommodating rates to
draw consumers and raise its part of the total business. It has likewise
embraced a special approach and offers a few motivations to attract its
clients to its entry.
 Return and Exchange strategy of Flipkart was defined remembering the
need and necessity of the nearby and ordinary citizens and updates time to
time.
 Flipkart has the technique to become "application just" retailer yet at later
stage it needed to move towards site too for customers ease.
 People at Flipkart adopt a proactive strategy to comprehend the customers
torment focuses and wow focuses to exceed expectations in consumer
loyalty.
 "Customers wow" is one of the ten fundamental beliefs painted on various
columns and dividers inside the workplace of Flipart. Relationship with
customers is considered a long ways ahead than value-based.
 Conveyance charges for Flipkart are viewed as higher than e-commerce
site.

31 | P a g e
 CONCLUSION

The marketing strategy of Flipkart is an exceptionally strong and powerful one,

obviously, it additionally doesn’t hurt that brands like Flipkart have abundant
resources and can put forth their marketing attempts in spring up.

At Flipkart, monthly active customers and users are key metrics and we are
performing admirably. With an extremely nice customers database, Flipkart is
outstanding amongst other e-commerce sites after Amazon in India and has made
some amazing progress. Flipkart uses to change over its thoughts right into it and
activity into results that characterize its example of a successful story.

A credible rival can do wonders to an enterprise and Flipkart is no different. The

entry of Amazon in India has enabled Flipkart develop a lot of in-house innovation
and organically developed best-practices - that have now become the industry
standard. Flipkart began operations on the consignment model; goods were
procured from suppliers on demand, based on the orders received through the
website. Later, the books-to-electronics e-shop adopted the warehouse model.
The company had its own warehouses, and maintained its own inventory.

However in July 2013, Flipkart launched its model of marketplace just one month
after Amazon launched its marketplace in India. It introduced payments brand
PayZippy for online merchants and customers seeking fast, hassle- free and safe
payment options. Some 70 per cent of its shipments are done by its own logistics
company and about half of deliveries are on a cash-on-delivery basis. Flipkart has
recently introduced the next day guarantee delivery service and shopping from its
own mobile application. Given the critical mass of transactions Flipkart controls -
about 100,000 a day - the company is betting that it has the volumes to lay the
foundation of what will be a profitable business. Last but not the least; Flipkart
has very clearly prioritized customer delight as its chief avenue for customer
acquisition and retention. This causes them to build a lot of slack into their
existing systems causing higher costs at several points in the supply chain. How
they address this challenge is what will determine their future success.

32 | P a g e
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Text Books:

 The Anatomy of Buzz by Emanuel Rosen

 The Psychology influence of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini

 Positioning by Al Ries & Jack Trout

 Philip Kotler, Marketing Decision Making: A Model-Building Approach,

Prentice-Hall, 1972.

Websites:

 https://www.studocu.com/en-us/document/harvard-university/business-
management/to-study-the-marketing-strategy-of-flipkart/16060463

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipkart

 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/flipkarts-shopsy-
enters-grocery-business-to-take-on-dealshare-
meesho/articleshow/88276425.cms

 https://images.app.goo.gl/GbZPZNgtbQb74BZt6

33 | P a g e