Monday, October 6, 2014

Indian retail market is virtually hijacked! And great Flipkart web crash may not change the predestined disaster in waiting. It is really the demand in physical retail market which crashed. The great deals and discounts that e-commerce majors such as Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon and others are announcing in full-page advertisements every day this festive season may not all be for real. Palash Biswas

Indian retail market is virtually hijacked!

And great Flipkart web crash may not change the predestined disaster in waiting.

It is really the demand in physical retail market which crashed.


The great deals and discounts that e-commerce majors such as Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon and others are announcing in full-page advertisements every day this festive season may not all be for real.

Palash Biswas

Indian retail market is virtually hijacked and great Flipkart web crash nmay not change the predestined disaster in waiting.

It is war time.

For rest of the world,India,the nation is reduced to emerging market only.

All sorts of bilateral relations is limited in trade bargaining and opening up of the consumer market.

E tailing is already captured by  Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon and others.Chinese dragons,Japanese robots are waiting in the wings and the Americans may not afford to lose any opportunity wahatsoever.

My friend Col.Barves called me last day and informed that he would spend some time with us today.Sabita sent me to the market which was virtually on fire.It is not the plastic money in fish market or veg market as yet but the cash inflow seems to be amazing.No one seems to be in bargaining mode.

Anything is bought with haste without any question about the price and the quality.It is just picking up and throwing money.

The market dominating cash empowered communities have made India such a hell losing for rest of the deprived depressed suffering humanity for which no economist cares much.The rest of the humanity has no survival kit.No escape route from this madding consumer crowd which is to grow day by day as th country goes digital and biometric.


The resultant disaster is horrible as it is focused by a mainstream Indian Daily.

Here you are!

Indian Express plays a screaming headline to  highlight the reality and it is as follows:Big Billion Day sale: Flipkart faces social media backlash over 'crashes', 'misleading' pricing - See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/business/business-others/big-billion-day-sale-flipkart-faces-social-media-backlash-over-crashes-misleading-pricing/#sthash.f90ODWdr.dpuf

DNA reports:Flipkart turns into Flopkart on Big Billion Day sale!

Flipkart's biggest ever marketing stunt 'The Big Billion Day' sprung a host of surprises for the rush of online shoppers most of whom were left disappointed as the servers crashed from the moment the sale was kicked-off early morning on Monday. There was huge disappointment and a sense of being cheated and the social media was agog with stories of dropped orders of "Flopkart".

However, Flipkart claims that the market response to this 24-hour sale was very promising thus allowing it to achieve sales target in less than half day's sale.

Calling it an unprecedented day and the biggest sale ever in India with a range of exciting offers at disruptive prices, Flipkart promoters Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal claimed to have created history in Indian e-commerce.

"Our teams and sellers worked days and nights to make this sale a success — and our efforts paid off. We got a billion hits on our site and achieved our 24-hour sales target of $100 mn in gross merchandise value (GMV) in just 10 hours," the Bansals said in a statement.

Among items that were up for grabs at discounts on Flipkart.com ranged between 25% and 55% and, in some cases up to 80%, included products across 70 categories, including SLR cameras, mobile phones, flat panel LED televisions and home entertainment products, kitchen appliances, fashion and lifestyle products, etc.

Flipkart got a taste of flash sales when it got into an exclusive tie-up with Chinese mobile handset maker Xioami to sell the Mi3 and Redmi handsets in limited numbers on its e-commerce marketplace. While the exercise certainly brought huge traction to Flipkart with Mi3 and Redmi handsets going 'out of stock' within seconds of opening the sale, the traffic also crashed the server every time the sale was announced.

As the sale progressed the Flipkart server appeared overburdened, which was evident from error messages that kept showing up time and again on various products that customers intended to purchase. Commenting on the issue, the Bansals said in the statement, "Our technology team has been dedicated towards addressing errors and providing constant support to accommodate the largest scale of traffic and customer visits e-commerce has witnessed across the country."

While the Xioami exercise was seen as a brand-building one by both parties, the Big Billion Day was exclusive to Flipkart and aimed at creating a special day for the online shopping enthusiasts to reckon with. Instead, it turned out to be a nightmare of sorts with online shopping diaspora taking potshots on e-commerce market place operator calling the sale a 'Pricing Scam', 'Big Billion Fool's Day', 'Flopkart' and so on.

Countrywide customers got error report suggesting crash of the Flipkart server. Kushal Ray of Navi Mumbai ordered a Rs23, 000 LED TV which was up for Rs16, 230. The order could not be placed as a server error notice appeared. At 4pm he got a message from Flipkart saying: "Did you face any hiccups while trying to place an order? Don't worry we have saved the details you filled in — you're just a couple of clicks away! Click on the button below to review and confirm the order..."

Kaushik Poddar of Mumbai bought a 40 inch Samsung LED TV for Rs43,500. Hours later the same product appeared on the site for about Rs73,500. However, just hours after making the purchase he received a cancellation email from Flipkart.com. Poddar had placed his order at noon and received the cancellation email from Flipkart at 4pm and that he will receive a refund in 10 days.

Poddar told dna: "It is understandable if I order five products and they cancel a few, but this was the only one I ordered. What is more surprising is that the same product was seen on sale at a higher price hours later. This basically means that my money will be with them for 10 days interest free, similarly if there are others facing a similar situation then there could be crores lying with Flipkart for the next 9 days."



Hindustan Times reports:The great deals and discounts that e-commerce majors such as Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon and others are announcing in full-page advertisements every day this festive season may not all be for real.

thus it happened to pronounce mass destruction for Indian retailers as it it is not the Flipkart,

It is really the demand in physical retail market which crashed.


India's biggest e-commmerce company, Flipkart, in particular earned the ire of disgruntled shoppers by offering some supposedly discounted items at prices higher than what rivals such as Amazon and Snapdeal were offering.

For instance, a MacBookAir 13" was priced at Rs. 56,490 on Flipkart but Snapdeal sold it for Rs. 49,999.

In other instances, the company allegedly marked up the retail prices of some products and then offered "discounts" that brought the selling prices close to market rates.

"But the digital customer is smart. With so many social sites, it will be difficult to pull a wool over their eyes. They will see through any such attempt," said Sandeep Komaravelly, senior VP (marketing) at rival Snapdeal.com.

To be fair, this practice of ramping up prices and then offering a "discount" was not true for all products, since a few discounts were genuine and lapped up by the customers.

Flipkart's big festive season sale, The Big Billion Day, overburdened its servers, which crashed within two hours of the sale opening, angering shoppers further. "The traffic was heavy but our server did not crash," a Flipkart spokesperson said, but refused to give any details.

Shoppers took to Twitter, Facebook and blogging to attack the company's pricing.

A Twitter user, @Surnell, posted screenshots of what purported to show Flipkart raising prices of a product in the run-up to the sale only to slap a discount on Monday.

"We got a billion hits on our site today and achieved our 24 hour sales target of $100 million (Rs 600 crore) in gross merchandise value (industry lingo for sales) in just 10 hours.

We are truly humbled by the immense faith our customers have shown in us," Flipkart's promoters Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal said in a statement on Monday evening.

Underlining the fierce battle for customers among e-commerce companies, Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, bought the domain name "bigbillionday.com" (Flipkart's name for its sale), which redirects customers to amazon.com and trolls Flipkart.

Monday's sale brought hordes of shoppers not only to Flipkart but to other retailers as well. "We have seen a 30% jump today and over the last week, the traffic has been 10% higher than what we get very month," Snapdeal's Komaravelly.

Amazon spokesperson said, "Today, on the last day of our 'Mission to Mars' campaign, we have witnessed a 100% increase in sales since yesterday.

It is our biggest day ever and we believe it is owed to the introduction of Dhamaka deals every hour through the day  and ensuring the availability of the deals advertised."

Amazon will hold week three of the "Online Shopping Dhamaka" festive celebrations followed by the "Diwali Dhamaka Week" starting October 10.


Flipkart sale: mega success or epic fail?

MAHIM PRATAP SINGH

Online megastore Flipkart's "Big Billion Day" sale generated unprecedented buzz in the online community but most of it, however, was not the pleasant kind. The sale drew fierce brickbats from online shoppers, annoyed by limited stocks and website crashes, as well as offline retailers who wrote to Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman demanding e-commerce be regulated.

#Flipkart was trending on Twitter through the day, but it was constantly behind rival Snapdeal's #CheckSnapdealToday, which remained the top trend in India. Another rival eBay, with # AsliDealsONeBay, was not far behind either.

Disgruntled shoppers were ruthless in their criticism of the homegrown retail giant. By the end of the day, upset shoppers had turned their anger to crackling humour, churning out jokes at a relentless pace.

"New on FlipKart: Robert Vadra purchasing lands in Haryana on 99% discount," said one shopper.

"Huge discount on Sold Out products," said another. Some went on to mock even the error messages that the website purportedly kept returning."

"Good news. The 500 Internal Server Error pages are gone from flipkart. Now you have 404 Page Not Found pages. 19.2% off on error message," quipped a shopper.

Others went on to compare Flipkart to IRCTC, notorious for its sluggish web performance during peak hours.

"'Sold out' is to Flipkart what "Please try again later" is to IRCTC," a shopper tweeted.

So did the festive ambush marketing trick - with a multi-crore advertising campaign waking readers up on a lazy Monday morning - work for Flipkart? Or did it end-up driving dissatisfied shoppers to rivals Snapdeal and eBay?

Flipkart founders Sachin and Binny Bansal sounded happy with the sale and thanked shoppers.

"…unprecedented day for us…we got a billion hits on our site today and achieved our 24 hour sales target of $100 mn in GMV in just 10 hours. We are truly humbled by the immense faith our customers have shown in us," the duo said.

The sale started at 8:00 a.m. offering extravagant discounts - as much as 90 per cent - on several popular products ranging from cosmetics and apparel to electronics.

Most shoppers, however, found stocks running dry minutes after the sale commenced and announced they would rather shop with rivals Snapdeal and eBay.

Snapdeal reported a "15x growth in the traffic" on their website on Monday and claimed to have sold "a smartphone every 6 seconds, a laptop every 20 seconds and a tablet every 30 seconds" over the weekend.

"Apparel, Electronics and Home grew at over 200% as compared to the average for the last 30 days," said a company spokesperson.

Other retailers claimed record sales too.

"Today (Monday), on the last day of our 'Mission to Mars' campaign, we have witnessed a 100% increase in sales since yesterday," Amazon India said in a statement.

Keywords: Flipkart, Big Billion Day

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/flipkart-sale/article6475808.ece



Flipkart crumbling on big billion day

India Today - ‎22 hours ago‎

Products like the Huawei Honor 6, Alcatel OneTouch Fire C and Lenovo Vibe Z2 are being launched exclusively on Flipkart on big billion day. Flipkart is crashing on its big billion day.While, the website is crashing often, the issue is not entirely catastrophic as ...

Flipkart turns into Flopkart on Big Billion Day sale

Daily News & Analysis - ‎5 hours ago‎

Flipkart's biggest ever marketing stunt 'The Big Billion Day' sprung a host of surprises for the rush of online shoppers most of whom were left disappointed as the servers crashed from the moment the sale was kicked-off early morning on Monday. There was ...

Problems Galore at Flipkart Big Billion Day Sale; Angry Consumers Mock ...

International Business Times, India Edition - ‎13 hours ago‎

However, when the eager consumers woke up early to check their desired items on Flipkart, many were in for disappointment as most of the items ran out of stock and for some devices, the price-cuts were revoked. Unable to withstand the virtual stampede, the ...

Flipkart, Snapdeal & a billion disappointed customers

mydigitalfc.com - ‎11 hours ago‎

The widely advertised festive season discount war between e-commerce players turned out to be a sham. Consumers who had been waiting for 'never-before' discounts were left disappointed, as there was a huge disparity between the prices advertised and ...

Flipkart's Big Billion Day Sale: Win Or Fail?

MensXP.com - ‎14 hours ago‎

What followed this was the annoying site crash and 'page not found error' which could have been easily avoided by Flipkart. That's because Flipkart is not new to flash sales and it has crashed a number of times in the past as well. When they have had similar ...

The Big Billion Day Sale Of Flipkart Was Huge Success

TechVorm - ‎14 hours ago‎

Despite hiccups experienced by the customers due to crash of website of Flipkart due to heavy traffic, still the majority of customers were lucky enough to grab their products of choice at attractive prices. Flipkart has claimed that this sale was a huge success ...

Flipkart's Mega Sale Faces Backlash, Snapdeal Gains Edge

Businessinsider India - ‎17 hours ago‎

Sachin and Binny bansal's Flipkart Big Billion Day was a bubble waiting to burst. The sale that was touted as the biggest sale in India by shoppers across the country seems to have disappointed many. According to consumers shopping on Flipkart, the ...

Flipkart big billion day sale is no Black Friday 2014: gets whipped

Northern Voices Online - ‎17 hours ago‎

People were also annoyed that the website continued to crash off and on. During the BlackFriday sales in the US, retailers offer at least fifty percent discounts. Many others offer even bigger discounts on many products. Smartphones, laptop, tablets, and other ...

Flipkart.com

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Flipkart

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Flipkart india.png


Type

Private

Founded

2007

Headquarters

, India

Country of origin

India[1]

No. of locations

Bangalore, India

Area served

India

Founder(s)

Key people

Sachin Bansal & Manish Verma

Industry

Online retailing

Products

Flipkart.com, Electronic Wallet, Mime360.com, Chakpak.com

Services

Electronic commerce

Revenue

Increase INR60.8 billion(US$980 million) (FY 2013-14)[2]

Profit

INR-4.730 billion (US$−77 million) (2013)[3]

Total assets

US$7 billion (2014)[4][5]

Employees

10000[6]

Slogan(s)

The Online Megastore

Website

Flipkart.com

Alexa rank

positive decrease 96; 6: India (August 2014)[7]

Type of site

Online shopping

Advertising

yes

Registration

Optional (required for buying Digital Content)

Available in

English

Launched

2007; 7 years ago

Current status

Online

Flipkart is an e-commerce company founded in 2007, by Sachin and Binny Bansal.[8] It operates exclusively in India, where it is headquartered inBangalore, Karnataka.[9][10] It is registered in Singapore, and owned by a Singapore-based holding company.[11][12] According to Alexa Internet, Flipkart's website is one of the 10 most visited websites in India.[7] Flipkart has launched its own product range under the name "DigiFlip", offering camera bags, pen-drives, headphones, computer accessories, etc.[13][14]

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 or companies can also sell goods through the Flipkart platform.[12]

Contents

 [hide]

History[edit]

Flipkart was founded in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, both alumni of the [Indian Institute of Technology Delhi]. They had been working forAmazon.com previously. The business was formally incorporated as a company in October 2008 as Flipkart Online Services Pvt. Ltd.[15] During its initial years, Flipkart focused only on books, and soon as it expanded, it started offering other products like electronic goods, air conditioners, air coolers, stationery supplies and life style products and e-books. The first product sold by them was the bookLeaving Microsoft To Change The World, bought by VVK Chandra from Andhra Pradesh.[16][17][18] Flipkart now employs more than 9000 people.[19] Flipkart allows payment methods such as cash on delivery, credit or debit card transactions, net banking, e-gift voucher and card swipe on delivery.[20]

Acquisitions[edit]

  • 2010: WeRead, a social book discovery tool.[21]

  • 2011: Mime360, a digital content platform company.[22]

  • 2011: Chakpak.com, 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.[23]

  • 2012: Letsbuy.com, an Indian e-retailer in electronics. Flipkart has bought the company for an estimated US$25 million.[24][25] Letsbuy.com was closed down and all traffic to Letsbuy have been diverted to Flipkart.[26]

  • 2014: Acquired Myntra.com in an estimated INR 2,000 crore deal.[27]

Finance[edit]

Initially, the founders had spent INR 4,000,000 only for making website to set up the business.[28] Flipkart has later raised funding from venture capital funds Accel India (US$1 million in 2009)[29][30][31] and Tiger Global (US$10 million in 2010 andUS$20 million in June 2011).[32][33][34] On 24 August 2012, Flipkart announced the completion of its 4th round of $150 million funding from MIH (part of Naspers Group) and ICONIQ Capital.[35] The company announced, on 10 July 2013, that it has raised an additional $200 million from existing investors including Tiger Global, Naspers, Accel Partners and Iconiq Capital.[36]

Flipkart's reported sales were INR 40 million in FY 2008–2009,[37][38] INR 200 million in FY 2009–2010[39] and INR 750 million for FY2010–2011.[40] In FY 2011–2012, Flipkart is set to cross the INR 5 billion (US$100 million) mark as Internet usage in the country increases and people get accustomed to making purchases online.[41] Flipkart projects its sales to reach INR 10 billion by year 2014. On average, Flipkart sells nearly 10 products per minute[42] and is aiming at generating a revenue of INR 50 billion (US$0.81 billion) by 2015.[43]

On November 2012, Flipkart became one of the companies being probed for alleged violations of FDI regulations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999[44][45]

In July 2013, Flipkart raised USD 160 million from private equity investors.[46]

In October 2013, it was reported that Flipkart had raised an additional $160 million from new investors Dragoneer Investment Group, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, Sofina SA and Vulcan Inc. with participation from existing investor Tiger Global.[47][48][49]

On 26 May 2014, Flipkart announced that it has raised $210 million from Yuri Milner's DST Global and its existing investors Tiger Global, Naspers and Iconiq Capital.[50]

In early July 2014, it was also highly speculated that Flipkart was in negotiations to raise at least $500 million, for a likely listing in the US for 2016.[51]

On 29 July 2014, Flipkart announced that it raised $1 billion[52] from Tiger Global Management LLC, Accel Partners, and Morgan Stanley Investment Management and a new investor Singapore sovereign-wealth fund GIC.[53]

Flyte Digital Music Store[edit]

In October and November 2011, Flipkart acquired the websites Mime360.com[22] and Chakpak.com.[23] Later, in February 2012, the company revealed its new Flyte Digital Music Store.[54] Flyte, a legal music download service in the vein of iTunesand Amazon.com, offered DRM-free MP3 downloads. But it was shut down on 17 June 2013 as paid song downloads did not get popular in India due to the advent of free music streaming sites.[55][56]

Exclusive Product Launches[edit]

Motorola Mobility, previously owned by Google but then sold to Lenovo, in an exclusive tie up with Flipkart launched its budget smartphone Moto G in India on 5 February 2014.[57][58] This triggered an overwhelming response from online shoppers and more than 20,000 units were sold within hours of launch on Flipkart. After the Moto G successful debut launch, Flipkart was looking for a long term tie up with Motorola Mobility.[59] The Moto G success story, led to an another exclusive tie up between Flipkart & Motorola Mobility, who launched their flagship Android smartphone, the Moto X on 19 March 2014.[60][61] After Moto G and Moto X, Flipkart invited the Moto E, the newest member of Moto family which is even cheaper than Moto G on 13 May 2014.[62] The sale of high-end smartphone Xiaomi Mi3 produced by Xiaomi Tech was launched in India on an exclusive tie-up with Flipkart. The first batch was sold out within 39 minutes[63] on 22 July 2014, the second in 5 seconds[64] on 29 July 2014. The sale was proceeded on pre-registration mode where more than 150 000 buyers booked for the 5 August 2014 sale. This got sold off in less than 2 seconds.[65] Following this Xiaomi Tech decided to sell 20,000 pieces in the next sale scheduled for 12 August 2014.[66] On September 2, 2014 Flipkart held a flash sale of the budget Android smartphone the Xiaomi Redmi 1S which was launched in India in July 2014. 40, 000 units priced at Rs 5999 each were sold within seconds.[67] In the second round of Xiaomi Redmi 1S sale held on Sept 9, 2014, 40,000 units were sold within a span of 4.5 seconds, slightly longer than the first sale, which lasted just 4.3 seconds.[68] Third round of Redmi 1S sale held on Sept 16, 2014 with again 40,000 units sold in fastest of all 3.4 seconds.[69] In the 4th round of sale of Redmi 1S held on Sept 23, 2014, Flipkart put more units this time, 60,000 units go out of stock in 5.2 seconds.[70] In the latest Flash sale held on Sept 30, 2014, once again 60,000 units Go out of stock in 13.9 seconds.[71] Next sale is scheduled for Oct 14, 2014.

In-house Products[edit]

  • In July 2014 Flipkart launched its own set of tablet, mobile phones & Phablet. The first among these series of tablet phones was Digiflip Pro XT 712 Tablet.

  • In July 2014 Flipkart launched it's first networking Router, under its own brand name named DigiFlip WR001 300 Mbit/s Wireless N Router.

  • In September 2014 Flipkart launched its in-house home appliances and personal healthcare brand Citron. The label includes a wide range of cooking utilities and grooming products.

Awards and recognition[edit]

  • Co-Founder of Flipkart Sachin Bansal, got Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2012-2013 from Economic Times, leading Indian Economic Daily[72]

  • Flipkart.com was awarded Young Turk of the Year at CNBC TV 18's 'India Business Leader Awards 2012' (IBLA).[73]

  • Flipkart.com- got Nominated for IndiaMART Leaders of Tomorrow Awards 2011.[74]

  • Flipkart.com, secured second position in the List of Cheapest Mobile Store 2013, compiled by Indian e-commerce observer Zoutons.com.[75]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

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