As you all know about Flipkart, what does Flipkart do but there is only few people who know about How Flipkart started: The story of Flipkart becoming a billion-dollar startup.
Through this blog we will discover about how Flipkart was started and How it reached Billion-dollar startup.
The untold story of Flipkart
India's startup ecosystem has produced many successful startups, but few stories are inspiring. In that category, Flipkart comes. Flipkart was began as small online bookstore in 2007 like that of Amazon but overtime it eventually grew into India's largest e-commerce platforms and a billion-dollar startup.
We will know more about Flipkart in detail through this blog from
- The Founder and the Idea
- How Flipkart begin?
- What was the key problem in India?
- How Flipkart expanded into multiple Product categories?
- How Flipkart build a strong logistics Network?
- Funding and Rapid Growth
- Who was the largest competition with Global Giants?
- How Flipkart was acquired?
The Founder and the Idea
Flipkart was founded in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, two engineers who worked at Amazon before starting their own startup Flipkart.
While working at Amazon, they noticed a huge opportunity in India and that's how Flipkart started. That time, online shopping was new in the country. Most people hesitant to buy products online because of lack of trust issues in online payments and delivery systems.
They observed and believed that if they could solve this issue then they can create an online marketplace for Indian Consumers.
How Flipkart Begin?
Flipkart started as a small online bookstore. Founders chose books because as books are easy to carry and ship, have standardized products, and are widely demanded.
In the early days of Flipkart, founders were handling by themselves such as:
- Packing orders
- Managing Flipkart website
- Customer support for Flipkart
- Delivering books to customers
Many times, they were personally delivering books by themselves to the customers.
Despite of having small scale, their focus was on customer satisfaction and fast delivery helping them gain early users.
What was the key problem in India?
One of the biggest barriers in India was Lack of trust in online shopping and in online payments.
Most people were not comfortable for providing card details online.
Due to this problem, Flipkart introduced a new system called Cash on Delivery (COD). this allowed customers to make payments when the order is received.
This Innovation made Flipkart one of the biggest reason for Flipkart early success because it removed the fear of online payments.
How Flipkart expanded into multiple Product categories?
After gaining success and popularity with books, Flipkart expanded into other categories such as:
- Electronics
- Mobile phones
- Fashion
- Home appliances
This expansion helped them attract many audiences.
Flipkart eventually transformed from a simple online bookstore into a complete e-commerce marketplace where thousands of sellers can sell their products to million of customers just like Amazon.
How Flipkart build a strong logistics Network?
As Delivery was an major issue in India because infrastructure was not well developed. Instead of depending on third-party delivery companies, Flipkart built its own logistics arm called Ekart Logistics.
This allowed Flipkart to:
- Deliver Products faster
- Control the delivery experience
- Reach more cities across India
A strong logistics helped Flipkart to become one biggest competitive advantages.
Funding and Rapid Growth
As Flipkart success was spreading across India, Investor began to notice its potential. The company raised funding from several major venture capital firms.
Some key investors included:
- Accel Partners
- Tiger Global Management
These investments allowed Flipkart to expand product categories, Improve their Technology, Build warehouses and logistics infrastructure and hire more employees for Flipkart.
With continuous and many rounds, Flipkart's valuation rapidly crossed $1 billion, making it one of India's earliest unicorn startups.
Who was the largest competition with Global Giants?
As India's e-commerce market was growing rapidly, many global companies entered the market. The biggest competitor was Amazon.
The competition between Amazon and Flipkart led to many wars, marketing compaigns and innovation.
Flipkart has to introduce many several strategies to tackle and stay in the competitive market, such as:
- massive online sales events like Big Billion Days
- exclusive smartphone launches
- expansion into fashion through acquisitions
These strategies helped Flipkart to maintain its position as one of the India's leading e-commerce platforms.
How Flipkart was acquired?
In 2018, Flipkart was acquired by Walmart as they acquired the major stake in the company for about $16 billion.
This deal became one of the largest acquisitions in the global e-commerce industry and marked a historic moment for the Indian startup ecosystem.
Flipkart also got an access to Walmart's global resources and expertise.
In Conclusion:
The story of Flipkart shows how a simple idea can transform into billion-dollar company with right vision, innovation and persistance. also the the hardwork that caused many nights to stay awake and work without looking into results. From a small bookstore started by two entrepreneurs to one of the India's largest e-commerce platforms.
For aspiring entrepreneur and startup enthusiasts, Flipkart always remains an story of how solving real problems and focusing on customers need can lead to extraordinary success.