Flipkart is a very popular online shopping site that you must have shopped from some time or the other. But do you know how it all started. So today I will take you through the journey of Flipkart so that you can get a better idea of how this site started and reached where it is today. The website they use is www.flipkart.com.
Early Beginnings
The journey of Flipkart started in 2007 as an online bookstore. It was a venture that was started by Sachin and Binny Bansal. They both graduated from IIT Delhi. They both were working for Amazon before they started with Flipkart.
The founders invested four lakhs INR in making the site. In the year 2008 Flipkart had a team of just five people who were working from a small flat in Bangalore. The name of the company was Flipkart Online services Pvt Ltd. Bangalore remains the headquarters of Flipkart.
Non Indian Technically?
The company was actually registered in Singapore. This does not qualify Flipkart as an Indian company. Another interesting fact about the site is that most of its shareholders are foreigners. No one expected at this stage that in a year’s time it will be a company with one hundred people and have three offices across the country. There was a time when Flipkart was not very well known in the country. They basically started a new trend as when they started there were hardly any online shopping happening in India. As per the latest figures Flipkart has about fifteen thousand employees across the country.
The First Order
There were times when for days Flipkart would not get any orders. In the beginning for ten consecutive days they did not have any order and then a person called Mr. VVK Chandra who placed an order for a book named “leaving Microsoft to change the world”.
This book was authored by John Wood. This was the first order they ever got. After this there was a time when Flipkart got an order for about six hundred of these books. Flipkart is a fun organisation and the employees love to be a part of the website. It is said that Flipkart once raised thirty six millions.
Today Flipkart is into almost all types of commodities and goods. Inspired by their success story many online stores have come up in India. Both Sachin and Binny Bansal do belive in having fun as they are working hard. They left high paying jobs in order to develop Flipkart and make it what it is today.
The story of these IITians proves the importance of thinking out of the box. How can we forget the cute advertisements that Flipkart came up with for their promotion. They did not have too much money to spend on advertisements so they used small kids for the job and the advertisements were an instant hit.
Acquiring Myntra
Flipkart has now acquired one more online shopping site. Myntra was a popular site that specialised in clothes and apparels. Flipkart acquired Myntra and became even more popular. This increased the size of the team Flipkart was working with. The acquisition was for about two thousand crores in INR.
Flipkart today is a big name and they have some own brands too. They have a range called DigiFlip that includes products like tablets, laptop bags and USBs. They have a personal health care brand called “Citron”.
Chakpak and Letsbuy
In the past Flipkart has acquired many others. In the year 2010 they acquired we read it was a social book discovery tool. In the year 2011 a digital content platform company called mime360 was also acquired by it. In the same year 2011 they acquired chakpak.com. This site offered updates and news on bollywood and movies. After this in the year 2012 they bought letsbuy.com for about twenty five million USD. This site primarily dealt with electronic products.
Trail Blazers in E-commerce
The success story of Flipkart is learning for the country. The telecom minister met with the CEO of Flipkart and took their advice on how to make India a more business friendly country and attract more foreign investments. The Flipkart ensured that they make new rules for e commerce that the generation to come can follow. They indeed did the job well and made a mark for themselves.
Online Shopping: Modern Religion
There has been no looking back for Flipkart. It has been growing its marker slowly and gradually over the last few years. When it started there were hardly much competition in online shopping.
Sachin n Binny
They actually made online shopping popular among the youths of the country. In the year 2008-2009 their sales were at forty million INR. In 2009-2010 they saw sales worth 200 million INR.
The Flipkart team said that in 2014 they will make sales of about ten billion Indian Rupees. The site is indeed very popular and it sales about ten products per minute. The internet usage in the country has increased and more and more people are opting for online shopping. This has helped Flipkart to become even more successful.
The market capital of Flipkart is about eleven billion USD. On 6th October 2014 Flipkart gave huge discounts. They named this even “the big billion Day”. The site created history and the sales were unbelievable. They sold products worth 650 crores in matter of just ten hours.
The success was not without controversy. As many customers complained of bad after sales service. Some also said that what they wanted was not available on the site. The even saw many technical problems and as a result Flipkart had to face a lot of criticism in the social media. The Flipkart is now planning to become a public limited company.
Recognition and Awards
Flipkart has been awarded on many occasions. Economic Times gave Sachin Bansal the entrepreneur award of the year in 1012-2013. In the year 2013 it was listed as the cheapest mobile store. It was also awarded by CNBC TV as ‘India’s business leader awards 2012’.
We hope that after reading this you will be able to understand how Flipkart started its journey and how it has reached the position it is today. The story of Flipkart will always keep inspiring youngsters to try something new and innovative.
