backbenchers

backbenchers

The name of the company is Flipkart. It is an Indian based company, with headquarters in Bangalore. It was founded in October 2007 by Sachin and Binny Bansal. It is an e-commerce company which had started mostly by selling books on the internet. As of 2019, Flipkart is one of the biggest e-commerce websites in India, with more than 100 million registered users. It operates mostly through its website and smartphone applications developed for android and iOS users. In 2016, the Flipkart application crossed 50 Million downloads on the google play store for android applications.  Lately, Flipkart has launched Flipkart video, which is an online video-on-demand platform. Its first original series made exclusively for the platform named “backbenchers” hosted by Bollywood film director Farah Khan was aired on October 2019.

The only threat to the revenue of Flipkart is the growing incompetence of the sellers who sell their products. This causes dissatisfaction among the consumers, and they might opt for an alternative. Due to the internet getting more and more accessible to the general public as well as becoming popular with kids and elders alike, e-commerce platforms like Flipkart has chances of increasing their revenue. Also, with Flipkart video, Flipkart can aim to establish its hold on the video streaming market as well.

The Flipkart website is the primary source of revenues for the company and was launched the same day as the company. Initially intended to sell books on the internet, the business slowly grew, and the website started receiving about 100 orders per day. The Flipkart website contains promotional offers, has a search bar and customized recommendation of products based on the user search history. The user can log in using his email and can view his orders with the “my orders” option located on the upper right corner. Also, there is a section called “wishlist” which archives all the products that the user has archived intending to buy it for future use or to check the features later. The best offer available for the product is displayed, along with the best competent price that the company can offer.

Website: www.flipkart.com

The company serves almost every age group people, with products ranging from kids toys to medical accessories. Due to its digital presence, Flipkart is used mostly by the younger age group who are accustomed to computer applications or smartphone handling. However, it is not right to say as Flipkart pertains to only the young generation, as anyone having a computer or a smartphone with an internet connection can access this website.  Since the company is an e-commerce company, it has no offline visitors. Still, the products available on Flipkart has a different offline consumer base as compared to the online consumer base.

Customer segment of Flipkart mostly comprises of young urban people who are well connected through the internet and are well versed in the computer as well as smartphones. Mostly, the target group are those people who prefer shopping online due to lower prices and unwillingness to go outside for shopping. Population staying in towns and rural areas are also connected to Flipkart, but the connection was initially weaker due to Flipkart not having any distribution hub in those areas. Now, with distribution hubs in almost every district, Flipkart has a broader consumer base of the urban and rural population (Kalia, Kaur, & Singh, 2018).

Users who are active on the internet benefit the most from Flipkart, as Flipkart launches new and customized offers for the user based on his/her web search history. Also, Flipkart launches exclusive offers only for its smartphone application, which are beneficial to the customer using smartphones and surfing the web (Phutela, Vashisht, & Wadhwa, 2016). Also, Flipkart notifies any upcoming sale or discount prices on their social media handle. People who are on social media can see the offer and benefit the most, as compared people who are not so active on social media.

Riju is a 26-year-old boy living in Kharagpur. He works for a telecom company, and in his spare time, loves to be on his social media. Riju is an introvert and is mostly tired due to his job. On weekends, he likes to shop on Flipkart and check the prices of a recliner that he wants to buy for himself. Earlier, he used to buy his clothing and accessories in the local market, but with Flipkart’s improved delivery service, he now shops for shoes, clothes and bags on Flipkart itself.

Ria is a 22-year-old girl living in Kolkata. She is a student and receives a limited allowance from her parents. She has limited knowledge of computers but has a smartphone. Currently, she is saving to buy a pair of headphones as her previous pair was damaged. She saw an advertisement for Flipkart on her Facebook page about the sale on a pair of headphones and decided to place an order. She received her product after 24 hours of placing the order.

Snapdeal is an Indian e-commerce website located in New Delhi, India. They are owned by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, who founded the company in 2010. Like Flipkart, snapdeal had also started exclusively as an internet-based business in 2010. Snapdeal today has about three million sellers selling about thirty million products on its website and smartphone application. Like Flipkart, snapdeal also has some application-only offers that they offer to their customers (Rajan, & Alexander, 2019).

Like any e-commerce website, snapdeal also has a search bar and a bunch of product recommendation based on the search activity of the user. The user can log in to check on their products and can see the items in that they have added in their cart. The left side of the page offers a category wise search option for the user, who can use it to search for products for a general search.

Website: www.snapdeal.com

Amazon is an American based e-commerce company and is one of the main competitors of Flipkart. Its Indian branch has a separate site than its parent website due to its high traffic. Jeff Bezos founded it in 1994. In India, Amazon is among the top e-commerce website in terms of consumer base and varied applications. It also runs “amazon prime video” which is an online video streaming service and has exclusively made contents for its customers (Prabaharan, & Kumar, 2020). Amazon has launched Amazon Pay which is an online payment portal

Amazon’s website has a search bar, along with options of categories for a generalized search. The user can log in with his/her email credentials so that they can view their cat items, wish-listed products and previous orders. Customers also can switch to the amazon prime page, which has exclusive offers for its members and has the option of amazon prime video, where the user can watch videos r renew their subscription by entering their banking credentials. Also, it enables the users to open Amazon Pay, through which the user can make payments.

Website : www.amazon.in

Website accessibility

5

The website design is very much important as it will allow the user to find products of his/her choice. Also, the design should be appealing to persons who are well-versed in computer and for those who are not. The overall performance and revenue depend on the website as it is the face of the business.

Delivery time

4

the time is taken for the product to get delivered essential, as it will determine the user’s choice to buy the product if the delivery time is delayed or prolonged for a product that is needed within a particular deadline. The user might opt not to go for the product. For a small-town boy Riju, delivery time is significant, as the product sellers are mostly from urban cities.

Delivery charges

4

The delivery charge levied by the company is important, as it will get added to the final price that the user has to pay. This will significantly affect the user’s choice. For a student like Ria, who has limited resources, delivery charges might incur extra costs.

Discount offered

4

Like delivery charges, discount offered also gets added into the final pricing of the products. Once again, for people with limited resources like Ria, it is a huge factor in decision making.

Advertisement for new offers

3

For a general surfing audience, ads might attract them towards a newly launched product with reasonable pricing. This might help the company to gain revenue from a random perspective, but has little effect on users who are searching for a particular product.

Range of products

5

4

20

3

15

3

15

Discount offered

4

3

12

4

16

3

12

Delivery charges

4

4

20

2

8

3

12

After-sale service

4

4

16

1

4

3

12

Offers

3

4

12

3

9

4

12

Weighted Scores

80

52

63

Three of the companies are lacking in some department or the other. Still, my personal preference is Flipkart because it has competent prices, reasonable offers on products and a well-maintained website. While Amazon has the same feature, it lags in offering competent delivery charges on products, due to which the overall price of an amazon product increases. Snapdeal also struggles in the same areas, with only a few handfuls of useful features in its kitty. Due to this, sanpdeal is the least desirable option, in my opinion.