University of Mumbai

Comparative study between

Amazon and Flipkart

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Comparative study between Amazon and Flipkart

PROJECT SUBMITTED TO

UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI FOR PARTIAL COMPLETION OF THE

DEGREE OF

MASTERS IN COMMERCE

UNDER THE FACULTY OF COMMERCE

By

GANESH PRAKASH LOKE

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

DR KINNARY THAKKAR

UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, KALINA, MUMBAI

UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

KALINA, SANTACRUZ EAST, MUMBAI 400098

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 Acknowledgement

To list who all helped me is difficult because they are so numerous, and the depth is so
enormous. I would like to acknowledge the following as being idealistic channels and
fresh dimension in the completion in this project.

I take this opportunity to thank to University of Mumbai for giving me chance to do this
project.

I would like to thank my principal and Coordinator Dr. Kinnary Thakkar for providing
the necessary facilities required for completion of this project and for the moral support
and guidance.

I would also like to express my sincere gratitude towards my project guide Dr. Kinnary
Thakkar whose guidance and care made the project successful.

Lastly, I would like to thank each and every person who or directly or indirectly helped
me in the completion of the project & who supported me throughout my project.

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 DECLARATION BY LEARNER

I the undersigned Mister Ganesh Prakash Loke hereby, declare that the work embodied
in this project work titled “Comparative study between Flipkart and Amazon” forms
my own contribution to the research work carried out under the guidance of Dr.
Kinnarry Thakkar as a result of my own research work and has not previously to any
other university for any other degree/diploma to this or any other university.

Wherever reference has been made to previous works of others, it has been clearly
indicated as such and included in the bibliography.

I, hereby further declare that all information of this documents has been obtained and
presented in the accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct.

Name and signature of the learner

Certified by

Name: Dr.Kinnarry Thakkar

Signature of the guiding teacher.

Place
Date

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 CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that Mr. Ganesh Prakash Loke has worked and duly completed his
project work for the degree of Master of Commerce under the faculty of commerce in the
subject of advance accounting and his project is entitled, “Comparative study between
Flipkart and Amazon” under my supervision. I further certify that the entire work has
been done by the learner under my guidance and that no part of it has been submitted
previously for any Degree of Diploma of any University.

It is his own work and facts reported by his personal findings investigations.

Name: Dr. Kinnarry Thakkar

Signature of guiding

Teacher

Name: Lalita Mutreja

Signature

(External Examiner)

Date of submission

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 Index

Chapter No Title Page No

1 Introduction 7

2 Research Methodology 24

3 Literature Review 27

4 Data Analysis, Interpretation and Presentation 33

5 Conclusions and Suggestions 55

6 Appendix 58

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 Chapter 1: Introduction

Even since internet has been introduced to the world, it has made a huge impact on
people; business is one of such example where internet has made the difference. In July
1995 Amazon.com started selling books online and the response they received was
unexpected as in short time span books sold online in the all 50 states of USA and 45
countries. Amazon presently offers music, movies, toys; electronics and home equipment,
there are seven different international websites of Amazon with distributed customer
service centers in seven countries and over 17000 people work in Amazon worldwide.
Today there are over e-commerce websites are providing online shopping worldwide. An
e-commerce opens the global market to the customer, it helps to the customer by
providing huge options while buying products or a service, another major advantage of e-
commerce is that it is 24x7 available to the customer the customer can shop almost
anything within his/her comfort zone just by sitting at home, office during travels or
almost from any place at any time.

E-commerce is trading of service and product with the help of internet. E-commerce
introduced in the end of 70s and became popular during the 90s in western countries like
USA and UK. E-commerce introduced new possibilities in trading and attracted attention
of many traders.

Search Add product Process online

Checkout
Catalogue to cart payment

Order Order Order

Checkout
Confirmation Shipping Notification

Figure I showing the different places in the online shopping process.

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E-commerce offers products and service through websites, a customer simply has to visit
an e-commerce website and browse various offering through browser catalog, a customer
can select multiple offering and can add them to the shopping cart, once the shopping is
done the customer can checkout and proceed to payment section where various online
payment options are available like internet banking credit card and debit card etc. Once
payment is done the customer is notified about the order and order is shipped on the
postal address provided by the customer.

1.1. E-commerce in India

India has an internet user base of about 475 million as of July 2018, about 40% of
the population. Despite being the second-largest user base in world, only behind China
(650 million, 48% of population), the penetration of e-commerce is low compared to
markets like the United States (266 million, 84%), or France (54 M, 81%), but is growing
at an unprecedented rate, adding around 6 million new entrants every month.

In India, cash on delivery is the most preferred payment method, accumulating 75%
of the e-retail activities. Demand for international consumer products (including long-tail
items) is growing much faster than in-country supply from authorized distributors and e-
commerce offerings.

As of 2017, the largest e-commerce companies in India are Flipkart, Amazon,

ShopClues, Paytm, Snapdeal and e-bay.

E-commerce is trading of services and products with the help of internet. E-

commerce introduced in the end of the 70s and became popular during the 90s in the
western countries like USA and UK. E-commerce introduced new possibilities in trading
and attracted attention of many traders.

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1.2. Advantages of E-commerce

 It can help increase profits; it can increase sales and decrease cost.
 It can help organizations to do business 7 days a week and 24 hours a day.
 It can help organizations have customers all around the globe and not be limited to a
specific region
 It can help in lower operational cost.
 It can provide personalized products and customer customization.
 Shoppers are given a broader range of products to choose from online.
 Loyal customers are provided with loyalty incentives such as special discounts etc.
 Easy to showcase best sellers.
 Personalized online experience.
 Affordable employees.
 Easy to retarget or remarket to the customers.
 Customers get a less invasive experience.
 Gain access to customers’ data easily.
 Able to process a high number of orders.

1.3. Disadvantages of E-commerce

 The buyer cannot touch or feel the product online.

 The customer has to wait for the delivery of their product.
 Perishable goods brought online can get spoiled during delivery.
 It is difficult to know when an online site is safe to use.
 No one can buy during a site crash.
 Customers can be impatient.
 Increase in logistics cost.
 Physical retail is still more popular despite the decline.

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1.4. Amazon.com

Amazon.com is an online retailer of E-books and online services provider and it has
become the top-level company in the e-commerce world. Amazon’s headquarter in Seattle
of Washington (USA). Amazon is a big internet based company that sells music, books,
movies, household stuff, electronics, toys other kinds of stuff. Amazon works directly or
as the middleman between retailers and Amazon’s customers. It’s also providing internet
or web-based services like renting data storage or cloud computing on the internet.

Amazon also launched Kindle of the e-book reader. When they started to promote
this device in the market, it was a dramatic growth in e-book publishing and Amazon
becomes the main disruptive force for e-book publisher in the market.

Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon Company. When he founded Amazon, that time
no one thought e-commerce or internet business or online shopping would be so forward.
A day will come when people will be completely dependent on online shopping. With a
very forward-thinking, Jeff Bezos in July 1994, made his company Cadabra after one year
his lawyer changed its name to Amazon. Jeff Bezos, who named his company so different
because of world's largest river name, is Amazon.

Type of website: E-commerce

Available in: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese,
Dutch, Polish, and Turkish.

Launched: 1995

Customer service: 00 1 206-266-2992

Stock price: AMZN (NASDAQ) $1,495.56 -49.36(-3.19%) Mar 23, 4:00 PM EDT -
Disclaimer

CEO: Jeff Bezos (May 1996–)

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Headquarters: Seattle, Washington, United States

Founder: Jeff Bezos

Subsidiaries: Zappos, A9.com, Alexa Internet, Amazon Books, Amazon Game Studios,
Amazon Lab126, Amazon Publishing, Amazon Robotics, Amazon Studios, Amazon Web
Services, Audible Inc., Body Labs, Book Depository, Digital Photography Review,
Goodreads, Graphic, Internet Movie Database, Ring, Souq.com, Twitch.tv, Whole Foods
Market, Woot, Zappos.

Did you know: Amazon is the world's largest internet company by revenue.

In exactly the same way Jeff Bezos, Amazon had planned to open the world's largest
trading company. Firstly the Amazon Company started its business with books. After that
because of growing use of the Internet, and the need of people. Amazon started to sell many
products through the company like electronic, mobiles, home appliances and even the
goods that must be available from the small to large objects.

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1.4.1.Products and services

Amazon is a company that does not build or manufacture products, but they buy
these products at reasonable prices from different companies, and then sell these products
to customers in all over the world according to the company. Amazon sells books, e-books,
electronic items, every stuff according to needs of kids and adults, home appliances, mobile,
computer and tools related to computer, jewellery, motor vehicle parts, groceries and all
other stuff according to customers need. For the customers, there are many offers every
day. In the case of services, there are lots of facilities are available like cash on delivery,
payment by cards, online payments and even other facilities are available e.g. if customers
don’t like product and want to return back then cash back facilities are available and any
other mistake or problem in ordered products then amazon provide return back facilities to
their customers.

1.4.2.Name of opened centers in India:-

• Ahmedabad

• Bangalore

• Chennai

• Delhi

• Gurgaon

• Hyderabad

• Jaipur

• Kolkata

• Pune

• Mumbai

These are the main cities of India, where the centers of the Amazon have been opened.

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1.4.3.Key Facts

Every small and big business face loss and benefit. In the same way, the Amazon
Company suffered from too many problems and toughness for success. Despite that, the
company has maintained its credibility and reputation in the world. Net income of
Company is $3.03 billion from 2004 to 2017 and it increased from 2.37 billion U.S. dollar
net income in last year.

The Company is helping to increase employment in the world. From all over the
world 566,000 employees are working with Amazon. Amazon is trying to make e-
commerce more convenient for people and helping to save their time and money.

1.4.4.Amazon’s Entry in India

On February 02, 2012, Amazon.com declared the launch of its much-anticipated

Indian site called Junglee.com. Mr. Amit Agarwal vice president of Amazon.com remarked
that we are eager to give clients in India a solitary E-commerce beginning stage where they
can shop a variety of items sold by local and worldwide retailers. True to the guarantee,
Junglee.com has involved a choice of a wide assortment of Indian and worldwide brands.
Another good feature of Junglee.com was that the customers could use it offline and online
for shopping according to their choice, including Amazon.com. During the launch of
Junglee.com, they included 10.2 million items with the choice of purchasing from several
online and offline retailers, which included famous Indian retailers like UniverCell,
FabIndia, Homeshop18 etc. Junglee.com started business that time with around 9 million
books and worth was the items more than $3 million with 14,000 international and Indian
brands. This website had 25 product categories, including buyer durables, music,
adornments and books.

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1.4.5.Strategy

Amazon India’s strategy comprises and its main components:

• Wide selection of products

• Offerings products at low prices to customers

• Fast delivery service to customers

• Startup of delivery service for remote area

• More focused on customer satisfaction

• Better return policies for customers

From the beginning company’s goal is expansion as opposed to profitability, and company
strategy is customer-centric. The company aims to provide a reliable, trustworthy,
enjoyable and reasonable online shopping experience for customers to get brand loyalty.
Company’s primary focuses on building fast and convenient delivery methods and provide
delivery of its products in every corner of India.

1.4.6.International growth of Amazon

Even without opening web sites and distribution centers abroad, Amazon.com had
consistently served a global audience. Customers of the company started to came from 45
different in July 1995. Currently, the company sells to over 150 countries. In the year 2000,
about 13.8% of all revenues came from the International market. The company realized
that by more closely targeting some markets, revenue could be increased even more.

As a result of global interest, in 1998, the company launched a site in Germany- Amazon.de
and a site in the UK- Amazon.co.uk. In each market, the focus was on books, music, and
videos. The company adopted an acquisition strategy to achieve this goal. In 1998, Amazon
acquired two European e-commerce websites (Telebuch in Germany, and Bookpages in
the United Kingdom) and then re-launched them as Amazon.com-branded sites. Amazon’s
loyal followings were helping the company to gain a customer base in these markets. The

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company opened customer service centers in different cities of Europe to serve the market.
They opened customer service centers in Hague, England Slough, Germany and in the
Resenburg. The company hired multilingual service representatives to serve customers
effectively.

Later, the company expanded into other countries. In April and November 2000,
company started its business in France and Japan. With the French, Japanese and German
stores, the company was forced to deal with creating content in local languages. In addition,
with international expansion, the company had to become sensitive to local cultures.

In February 2012 Amazon started junglee.com in, and next year in June Amazon.in
launched in India, a marketplace that only sold books and DVDs India's $2 billion book
market was growing at a rate of about 15% per a year. After that Amazon expand its
business in other categories.

Amazon started its business in China in 2004. Amazon acquired online Chinese
website Joyo.com and re-launched with the name of Joyo Amazon in Beijing China. Before
2000 Joyo.com was download website and it was providing IT information services.
Kingsoft founded Joyo in August 1998. After that, in February 1999 Joyo.com became a
website. At that time, had only five employees and it was a subsidiary of Kingsoft. Just in
6 months, Joyo.com became the 33rd-largest website in China, and they started to publish
Software’s CD.

In 1999 Kingsoft decided to make Joyo.com into an online bookstore. That time
internet was not much developed in china. Joyo operational expenses hardly covered. Joyo
started company with only five employees. They had mission to become best and biggest
Chinese website, within 6 months Joyo.com become well-known website in china.

On August 19, 2004 Joyo.com was took over by Amazon.com in $75 million. It
became the Amazon’s 7th regional website after U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Japan,
Germany, and France. On June 5, 2007, Amazon renamed Joyo.com to Amazon.cn, and
Amazon changed its Chinese name Joyo network to Joyo Amazon. On October 27, 2011,
Amazon decided to change its name again Joyo Amazon to Amazon china.

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 In South America, Brazil is the largest online retailing market. In 2016 total online
retail sales was US$13 billion in Brazil, and Mexico is the second largest retailing market
with sales of $4.6 billion. From July 2015, Amazon started its full retail operation in
Mexico.

In December 2012, Amazon officially announced its launch in Brazil. Amazon was
more focused on electronic in Brazil. Amazon sold only books and Kindle devices on
Amazon.com.br. But soon they expand their categories and Amazon started to sell
electronic products like television, smartphones, video games, camera and other electronic
accessories.

In September 2011, Amazon.com launched the online store in Spain. Amazon

started online retailing in Spain with books, music, DVDs, electronics, software and other
products. Spain launched with many different products that include 130,000 DVDs, 2.5
million books, 450,000 CDs, 65,000 electronics products and variety of other products.

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1.4.7.International growth of Flipkart

Flipkart is India based E-commerce Company, and we can see from the above table
Flipkart is selling its products only in India. But now Flipkart is ready to start in global e-
commerce market through eBay. Flipkart is going to tie-up with eBay and then its products
will be available in nearly 200 countries. Flipkart’s global program allows its sellers to sell
their products globally in partnership with eBay. Flipkart has completed the deal with
eBay.in, and Flipkart investing $500 million for this global program.

The main aim of this program to sell made in India products in other countries. Some
of the key products are handicraft, saris, gold jewelry and other products. This program is
helpful for Indian seller they can sell their products to more than 170 million customers
through eBay in the international market. When customers order something from eBay’s
platform but Flipkart fulfill their orders.

Actually Amazon had already launched its global seller program with eBay before
2 years, and more than 25000 Indian sellers are selling their products through this global
platform. If this program will be successful then Flipkart will start selling its products
independently to its global customers.

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1.5. Marketing strategies and techniques of Amazon India and Flipkart
1.5.1. Marketing strategy of Amazon India

Amazon India doesn’t expose much about its marketing techniques and strategies.
Most of the customers of Amazon India form online marketing channels, so it seems
Amazon India is more focused on online marketing. Amazon states that we have direct
customers to our websites basically through online marketing channels, like sponsored
search, portal advertising, email marketing campaigns, and associates program. Amazon
India continuously increasing its spending on promotion and advertising to make its brand
stronger. Amazon India is continuously improving its website and tries to make it more
user-friendly and convenient for customers.

Marketing techniques of Amazon India: - We have earlier discussed these strategies

in the literature review.

• Affiliate Marketing

• Email Marketing

• Offline Advertising

• Word of mouth

• Pay per Click Advertising

• Interactive ads on portals

• Social media Marketing

• Search engine optimization

• Cooperative advertising

• Banner Advertisement

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 Amazon India is targeting millions of keywords through SEO (Search Engine
Optimization) and AdWords. According to my personal observation, though, Amazon,
India was not on the top in Search engine result pages - whenever I searched on Google
Flipkart was on the top for any online product, most of the time and for most of the
keywords. Flipkart is a very strong competitor for Amazon, India in every aspect but soon
Amazon, India learned from Flipkart’s mistakes and lacking. Amazon India paid more
attention to SEO and AdWords and soon they got the first rank in Search engine result
page.

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1.6. Flipkart Pvt Ltd.

Flipkart is an electronic commerce website of India, which is touching a new

dimension of success today. The company's headquarters is located in the Bangalore city
of Karnataka State with the help of this website many people are buying and selling various
types of items sitting at home. Established in the year 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny
Bansal, the company's total revenue is $3.1 billion.

Founded: October 2007

CEO: Kalyan Krishnamurthy (Jan 2017–)

Headquarters: Bengaluru, India

Revenue: 198.5 billion INR (2017, US$3.1 billion)

Subsidiaries: Myntra, PhonePe, eBay India Pvt. Ltd, Jeeves Consumer services, Mallers,
Inc, DSYN Technologies etc

Founders: Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal

Slogan: अब हर Wish हहहह हहहह

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1.6.1. History of Flipkart

Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal have been studying from the Indian Institute of
Technology, Delhi, when they finished their education, and started working for a famous
electronic commerce website Amazon, when they were working in this company, they
planned to set up their own company. And both of them resigned from the company on
October 2007 and started their own company.

In starting the company they started name was Flipkart Online Service Pvt. Ltd.
With the help of this service, they started to sale the books in starting. At that time, side by
side they also worked for leaving Microsoft to change the world.

During October-November of 2011, they created two websites Mime360.com and

chakpak.com. With the help of these websites the company performed even better.

The company has launched a digital music store during the year 2012. The music
store was named ' Flight digital music Store '. People could legally download music from
this online music store, but closed during the year 2013. The biggest reason for closure of
this website was that very soon many websites were coming to India which provided the
option to download songs for free. People didn't want to buy music online even when they
were getting in free of cost.

In 2014, Flipkart held a 'big billion sale'. During the event of this sale, Flipkart
received a very high profit and turnover total of $300 million.

In 2015 to improve their delivery service, they discovered Mapmyindia technology

for better navigation and make is more easy and simple way to place your order right with
the help of Mapmyindia devices.

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1.6.2. Various products introduced

Flipkart became quite famous because of its business success. Many large
companies started to launch their new products on this site.

In February 2014 there was an agreement between Motorola and Flipkart. After the
deal, on 19 March 2014, Flipkart started sell Moto-X smart phones from its website. On
May 13, 2014, the company began selling a cheaper phone of Motorola Moto-e from its
website.

On 2 September 2014, Flipkart also started sell Xiaomi Redmi 1s smart phones. This
phone was released in India in July 2014. A total of 40,000 smartphones were sold in a few
moments during the sale.

Flipkart launched the Micromax YU-Yunique 2 smartphone in July 2017. The price
of this mobile was just 5,999 rupees at the time of launch. In addition Flipkart also launched
its mobile phones, smartphone, tablet, and networking router etc.

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1.6.3. Awards and Achievements
 In April 2016, the names of Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal came in the list of 100
most influential people in the Times Magazine because of the success of Flipkart
Company.
 Name of these two business tycoons came in the Forbes India Rich List, issued by
Forbes in September 2015. They were on 86th Place in the list. At the moment both
owners had a separate amount of 1.3 billion dollars.
 Sachin Bansal awarded as an Entrepreneur of the year (2012-2013) by Times of
Economics. Flipkart Company also awarded as "Young Turk of the Year" in 2012 on
the behalf of CNBC.

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 Chapter 2: Research Methodology

2. Scope of the Study

Our study is limited to the two major players in the Indian E-Commerce market viz
Amazon and Flipkart; a comparison between the two, their Business model, achievements,
failures, major acquisitions and road map ahead.

2.1. Objectives of the study

 To understand and estimate the consumer perception and factors affecting their
behavior for choosing e-commerce sites

 To understand tactics and methods those are used by e-commerce players to grab
the customers in India

 To know how consumers are evaluating e-commerce sites for their purchases

2.2. Research Design

2.2.1. Explanatory Research
Explanatory research is conducted for a problem that has not been clearly defined.
Explanatory research helps determine the best research design, data collection method and
selection of subjects. It should draw definitive conclusions only with extreme caution.
Explanatory research often relies on secondary research such 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 and projective methods.

2.2.2. Descriptive research

The objective of descriptive research is to describe the characteristics of various
aspects such as the market potential for a product or a company or the demographics and
attitudes of consumers who buy the product with the help of primary data collected.

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2.3. Data collection
The goal of all data collection is to capture quality evidence that then translates to
rich data analysis and allows the building of a convincing and credible answer to questions
that have been posted.

Data collection is divided into 2 types- Primary data and Secondary data. Methods
like questionnaires, observations and interviews were used to collect primary data.
Questionnaire was designed incorporating relevant questions and was circulated to users
of these online websites and their responses were validated. Few customers were
interviewed to get first hand information of their experiences with these websites. Users
reaction is best known by observation. Some consumers who have never used amazon or
flipkart were asked to checkout the 2 websites and their observations were recorded.

Secondary data means data that is already available i.e. it may be either published
or unpublished. To make primary data more specific, secondary data will help to make it
more useful. It helps to improve the understanding of the problem. Secondary data was
collected from various sources such as different business websites and published papers.

2.4. Selection of target users

Selection of target customers for feedback were based on age group, purchasing
power and gender. Spending trends of consumers in different age group with varied levels
of purchasing power gender wise was analyzed.

2.5. Analytical Techniques

Two types of analytical techniques are used- Descriptive analysis and Correlation
analysis.

Descriptive analytics is the interpretation of historical data to better understand

changes that have happened in a business. Descriptive analytics describes the past using a
range of data to draw comparisons. Most commonly reported financial metrics are a
product of descriptive analytics, e.g., year-over-year pricing changes, month-over-month
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sales growth, the number of users, or the total revenue per subscriber. These all describe
what has occurred in the business in the time period being measured. Descriptive analytics
is meant to provide an accurate picture of what has happened in a business and how that
differs from other comparable periods. These performance metrics can be used to flag areas
of strength and weakness in order to inform management’s strategy.

Correlation analysis is a method of statistical evaluation used to study the strength

of a relationship between two, numerically measured, continuous variables (e.g. height and
weight). This particular type of analysis is useful when a researcher wants to establish if
there are possible connections between variables. It is often misunderstood that correlation
analysis determines cause and effect; however, this is not the case because other variables
that are not present in the research may have impacted on the results.

If correlation is found between two variables it means that when there is a systematic
change in one variable, there is also a systematic change in the other; the variables alter
together over a certain period of time. If there is correlation found, depending upon the
numerical values measured, this can be either positive or negative.

 Positive correlation exists if one variable increases simultaneously with the other, i.e.
the high numerical values of one variable relate to the high numerical values of the
other.
 Negative correlation exists if one variable decreases when the other increases, i.e. the
high numerical values of one variable relate to the low numerical values of the other.

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 Chapter 3: Literature Review

3.1. Marketing

Marketing is the social procedure by which people and companies acquire what they
need through making and trading an incentive with others. The procedure by which
organizations make products for clients and build solid client connections keeping in mind
the end goal to catch profit from clients consequently (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010).
According to Lancaster & Reynolds marketing as an organizational philosophy and activity,
which is applicable to nearly all varieties of employer or companies, whether it is profit-
making or non-profit (Lancaster & Reynolds, 2005). In our daily life, we use many
products and services. These products/services are like food products, clothes, beauty
products, mobiles phones and services, electricity and many more. How do we get
information about these products/services and how do we get these things in our home.
Obvious all business companies want to sell their products so they have to make awareness
about their products in public and how useful these things for customers. This involves the
number of actives like product planning, pricing of product, promotion and sale. And all
these activities are together called "Marketing". (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010)

We know every entrepreneur produce products and services for our use. And it
doesn’t matter they have to produce products/services where these consumed or used.
Nowadays we can see a lot of companies or factories are producing or manufacturing
products in small cities but after that manufacturer knows they have to send these items or
products according to customers demand in all over the world. And when we go to buy
something like clothes for us, and there is a lot of option available for us in term of quality,
colour, design, cost etc. And we can buy what suits us more.

Marketing about creates, communicate, and delivering the products to customers.

So that’s why marketing is not just about the promotion of products. Actually, marketing
is about every small steps of the business process. It's about creating or producing the
products. Even we have seen Apple looks at its customers’ desires and figures out what it

27
wants to put in its latest version of the iPhone, it is engaged in marketing because it is
creating a good that customers want. Marketing is about communicating with customers
and people and find out about their taste and what’s going in there mind about this kind of
products. Are they wanted to try a new product or they want moderation. This is the most
familiar sense of marketing. It has to do with letting your customers know what products
you have and why they should want those products. Marketing is about delivering the
products. This means that marketing is partly about figuring out how to get products from
the company to the consumer. Marketing has to do with exchanging the offerings. This
means that marketing is about actually selling the products/services as well. When a
company decides how much it will charge for its products or services they must charge
from customers. Therefore, it is engaged in marketing (Lancaster & Reynolds, 2005).

Advertising and marketing, in economics, that part of the system of manufacturing

and exchange this is involved with the glide of goods and offerings from producer to
consumer. In popular utilization, it's far described because the distribution and sale of
products, the distribution being understood in a broader feel than the technical economic
one. marketing includes the activities of all those engaged inside the transfer of goods from
producer to consumer—now not best people who purchase and sell without delay,
wholesale and retail, however also people who expand, warehouse, transport, insure,
finance, or sell the product, or in any other case have a hand inside the system of switch.
In a cutting-edge capitalist economic system, wherein nearly all production is intended for
a market, such activities are simply as important as the manufacture of the products. It’s
far envisioned within the USA that approximately 50% of the retail fee paid for a
commodity is made up of the value of advertising (Wilmshurst & Mackay, 2002).

Marketing is based on the main fundamental that the customer is the main important
factor for the organization. The general public considers the term consumer in the context
of a profit-making facility. Even as it is true that the marketing idea has been more broadly
adopted and practiced inside the income-making sectors of the economic system, the
essential principles of advertising and marketing are similarly relevant inside the no longer-
for-income sectors; a fact this is frequently left out.

28
 In order to begin the marketing process at all, the organization has to understand in
which business they are in, or in other words, what is their mission statement. The
organization has to understand who their customers to be served are, what are the customer
needs to be filled and what expertise or technology should be utilized to make all this
happen. After these vital elements are determined, the process starts with an audit of the
situation and it should be done both internally and externally. The internal audit includes
past marketing objectives and success rates, sales or revenues, market shares and trends,
profit margins and pricing strategies, product range, promotional methods used and their
success rates as well as distributional channels used, marketing resources of personnel, and
budgets and market research available. So it could be said that internal audit concentrates
on what the organization has control over and what has been done before.

29
3.2. History of Marketing

Marketing originated in ancient time but that time is known as Selling of products.
As quickly as early man produced surpluses of certain items, he started to search for trading
possibilities, first on a barter basis, and afterwards a monetized basis. The high-quality
artwork of finding customers, showing goods attractively, and negotiating correctly had
started very early in civilizations. In the 19th century with the development of mass media
or communication and national markets, manufacturing companies find out if they
advertise regular their products then they can increase sales of products. They can increase
customer leads, interest and generate awareness about products and brands. After that
company started to hire specialist or agencies for advertising of products. "First marketing
department was formally established by the Curtis Publishing Company in 1911, and the
example was soon followed by U.S. Rubber (1916) and Swift & Co. (1917)” (Kotler &
Mindak, 1978). According to Bartels the word ‘marketing’ used as a noun first time in
between 1906 to 1911, as a label for a particular practice (Bartels & Robert, 1976).

3.2.1. Expert Views

Martin Dodges (1999), “finding the source of amazon.com: examining the hype of
the earths biggest book store’’, center for advanced spatial analysis. Concluded that
amazon.com has been one of the most promising e-commerce companies and has grown
rapidly by providing quality service.

Miyazaki and Fernandez (2001) substantiated that the prior experience was found
to affect the intention and behavior significantly and in a variety of ways. The results of
this study imply that the technology acceptance model should be applied to electronic
commerce research with caution. In order to develop a successful and profitable web shop,
understanding customer’s needs is essential. It has to be ensured that products are as cheap
in a web shop as purchased from traditional channels.

According to Sharma and Mittal (2009) in their study “prospects of e-commerce

in India’’, mentions that India is showing tremendous growth in e-commerce. Undoubtedly,
with middle class of 288 million people, online shopping shows unlimited potential in India.
The real estate costs are touching the sky. Today e-commerce has become has integral part

30
of our daily life. There are websites providing any number of goods and services. The e-
commerce websites provide any number of goods and services. The e-commerce portals
provide goods and services in a variety of categories. To name a few; apparel and
accessories for men and women, health and beauty products, books and magazines,
computers and peripherals, vehicles, software, consumer electronics, household appliances,
jewelry, audio, video, entertainment goods, gift articles, real estate and services. Ashish
Gupta, senior managing director of helion venture partners and one of the first backers of
Flipkart as an angel investor. “Flipkart has been absorbing companies that has some
potential (letsbuy, myntra). In that process, some of the bets will go wrong, for sure. But
that is par for the course. Flipkart is consciously taking bets that allow it to either grow or
eliminate competition that reduces marketing spends and improves economies.

Samadi and Ali (2010) compared the perceived risk between internet and store
shopping and revisit the relationships among past positive experience, perceived
experience and future purchase intention within the internet shopping experience.

Abhijit Mitra (2013), “E-commerce in India a review’’, International Journal of

Marketing Financial Services and Management Research concluded that e-commerce has
broken the geographical limitations and it is a revolution. Commerce will improve
tremendously in the next five years in India.

D.K. Gangeshwar (2013), “e-commerce or internet marketing: a business review

from Indian Context’’, international journal of u- and e- service, science and technology;
concluded that e-commerce has a very bright future in India although security, privacy and
dependency on technology are some of the drawbacks on e-commerce but still there is a
bright future to e-commerce.

Dr. Sudha S. (2015), Innovation brings with itself a new set of challenges. The e-
retailing form of market was fairly something unheard of to the Indian consumer in 2007.
Flipkart which has created a niche for itself in terms of market share, goodwill and
popularity in the online market to the extent that retailers are coming under threat because
of its discounts and smooth operations. The ascent of Flipkart to capture the online market

31
in India in just 4 years, the strategies implemented by it to create online business, its ability
to stand out from other e-retail sites. This case study aims to understand the marketing
strategy, brand awareness, SWOT analysis, functioning of Flipkart. It aims to predict the
future roadmap and also aims to find significant threats to Flipkart in the near future.

Pooja Gupta (2015), The study tries to recognize that, how consumer measure
channels for their purchasing. Specifically, it progresses a conceptual model that addresses
consumer value perception for using the internet shopping vs the traditional shopping.
Earlier study showed that perceptions of price, product quality, service quality and threat
strongly impact perceived value and purchase intents in the offline and online network.
Observations of online and offline buyers can be evaluated to see how value is constructed
in both channels. It is hitherto to recognize what factors influence online and offline
shopping choice progression. The objective of this study is to provide an impression of
online shopping decision process by comparing the offline and online decision making and
identifying the factors that motivate customers to decide whether to do online shopping or
go for offline shopping. Consumer’s shop when and where they want, where they are
comfortable with the products and the choice of shopping. The study finds that female are
more into online shopping than male.

K Francis Sudhakar (2016), internet became more powerful and basic tool for
every person’s need and the way people work. By integrating various online information
management tools using internet, various innovative companies have set up systems for
taking customer orders, facilitate making of payments, customer service, collection of
marketing data and online feedback respectively. These activities have collectively known
as e-commerce or internet commerce. Online shopping made so easy for everyone with
their product variations and simple way to but things. An attempt has been made to
critically examine various corporate and business level strategies of two big e-tailers
Flipkart and Amazon. Comparison has been done e-commerce challenges, their business
model, funding, revenue generation, growth, survival strategies, shoppers online shopping
experience, value added differentiation and product offerings.

32
Chapter 4: Data Analysis, Interpretation and Presentation

Method of data analysis

Factor analysis was performed to determine the correlation between the variables and
highly correlated variables are combined and represented by a factor. This is to ensure data
reduction, instead of several variables they are represented by few major factors.
Regression analysis, to identify the impact of the factors identified in factor analysis
(independent variables) on customer satisfaction (dependent variable).

4.1. Demographics

Variables Measuring Group Frequency Percentage

Age <25 33 76.74
25-35 7 16.28
>35 3 6.98
Total 43 100.00
Gender Male 19 55.81
Female 24 44.19
Total 43 100.00
Table 4.1 Demographics of the Respondents

The above chart provides the empirical findings gleaned from the collected data. It
provides demographic information of the respondents and the statistical analysis of the
information collected from them. This is followed by the interpretation and discussion
about our findings. The above table shows that out of 70 respondents 50 % of people are
in the age group of < 25 years,35.7% of people are in the age group of 25-35 and 14.3% of
people are in the group of >35. We are having highest respondents who do online shopping
are less than 25 years and almost all those belongs to student category. At the same time
35.7% of age group 25-35 are utilizing online shopping well. All those people are attracted
to e-commerce sites which are offering wide range of products to everywhere and also with
their services. Another demographic factor we considered is gender. Female respondents
are higher than the male respondents that who prefer online shopping. We can interpret
that based upon their preferences that they are getting different and unavailable
international products online, which made easy and time efficient.
33
4.2. How often respondents shop online

Valid Frequency Percent Cumulative

Percent

One in a month 14 32.56 32.56

Once in 2 months 17 39.53 72.09

More frequently 10 23.26 95.35

Very rarely 2 4.65 100.00

Table 4.2 How often respondents shop online

Interpretation: From above table we can interpret that how often respondents are doing
shopping online. It became habit of choosing online shopping instead of brick and mortar
shopping. Here 30% of respondents are so regular that they do shop online at least once in
month. That opens more ways to e-commerce people to succeed in market.

4.3. Preferred online site by respondents

Valid Frequency Percent Cumulative

Percent

Amazon 20 46.51 46.51

Flipkart 18 41.86 88.37

Snapdeal 1 2.33 90.70

Others 4 9.30 100.00

Table 4.3 Respondent online site preference

Interpretation: From above table we can interpret that both Amazon and Flipkart were
chosen by 88.37% of the respondents almost at par. And rest of the e-commerce players
such as Snapdeal (2.33%) and others (9.30%) are too low in the competition to reach the
target of both Amazon and Flipkart. Though Snapdeal offers huge discounts on products,
it still has a very low market share and is quite far from Amazon and Flipkart.

34
4.4. Respondents payment method

Valid Frequency Percent Cumulative

Percent

Cash on delivery 27 62.79 62.79

Credit Card 1 2.33 65.12

Debit Card 9 20.93 86.05

Net Banking 1 2.33 88.37

Third Party 5 11.63 100.00

(Paytm wallet,
Paypal, etc.)

Table 4.4 Respondent payment method

Interpretation: E-commerce players have to gain confidence in terms of providing

security to customer’s sensitive data. When respondent is questioned with payment method
they will use while doing online shopping, most of the respondents choose cash on delivery
method which is of 62.79%. We can analyze that cash on delivery is simple and perfect
way to customer to proceed. Even delivery boys are carrying swipe machines and made
more convenient.

35
4.5. Respondent is most impressed with which e-commerce site

Valid Frequency Percent Cumulative

Percent

Amazon 21 48.84 48.84

Flipkart 19 44.19 93.02

Others 3 6.98 100.00

Table 4.5 Respondents impression

Interpretation: E-commerce site that is most appreciated by customers is Amazon.

Amazon is leading with 48.84% when compared to Flipkart, which is having 44.19% of
respondent’s interest. And rest of e-commerce sites are not even in the reach of Flipkart
and Amazon. It clearly proves that Flipkart and Amazon are leading e-commerce market
in India.

4.6. Respondent choosing E-Commerce site

Valid Frequency Percent Cumulative

Percent

Advertisements 10 23.26 23.26

Online Reviews 19 44.19 67.44

Referral by friends 14 32.56 100.00

Table 4.6 Respondents selection process

Interpretation: Which is the perfect way to reach the customers? Or by what basis client
is choosing online site for shopping. According to above table respondents are choosing as
per online reviews. Secondly selection of e-commerce site is based on referrals by friends.
Selection based on advertisements is the last criteria for selection of e-commerce site.

36
4.7. Respondent is more satisfied with which site pricing

Valid Frequency Percent Cumulative

Percent

Amazon 19 44.19 44.19

Flipkart 20 46.51 90.70

Snapdeal 2 4.65 95.35

Others 2 4.65 100.00

Table 4.7 Respondent’s satisfied with pricing

Interpretation: Price, the most important aspect while purchasing. When an e-commerce
site can offer what customers need at a reasonable price, then everyone will go after that
site only. From above table people are mostly impressed with Amazon and Flipkart with
slight change. Even though Snapdeal is offering all the products at very low rates, people
are interested in top ones.

4.8. Respondent would like to suggest to others

Valid Frequency Percent Cumulative

Percent

Amazon 20 46.51 46.51

Flipkart 21 48.84 95.35

Snapdeal 1 2.33 97.67

Others 1 2.33 100.00

Table 4.8 Respondents will suggest to others

Interpretation: From one of our previous questions we understood that friend suggestion
is so important while purchasing online or while selecting an e-commerce site. From above
table it is clear that based upon the respondent’s views which e-commerce site is leading

37
in friends’ suggestions. 48.84% of respondents are ready to suggest Flipkart to their friends
and family. And after Flipkart, Amazon is leading in respondent’s suggestion box with
46.51%. And rests of them are having very minimum importance and occupation in
respondent’s opinion.

4.9. Occasions preferred by respondent to do shopping

Valid Frequency Percent Cumulative

Percent

Festival 6 13.95 13.95

Offers 35 81.40 95.35

To Gift 2 4.65 100.00

Table 4.9 Respondents interest in buying

Interpretation: E-commerce sites know when to and how to capture customers. The
timing of offers in e-commerce sites is just perfect. Even though people don’t need them
they will purchase because of tempting deals in a row. More than 50% of people are doing
online shopping, when those e-commerce sites are offering so many exciting deals and
offers. All the ecommerce sites are moving their pawns competitive to each other, which
lead customers in confusion.

4.10. Respondents faced problem with

Valid Frequency Percent Cumulative

Percent

Cheap quality of 11 25.58 25.58

product

Delay in delivery 22 51.16 76.74

Non-delivery 7 16.28 93.02

Product damage 3 6.98 100.00

Table 4.10 Respondents troubled in particular case

38
Interpretation: From product order to delivery of the product, it is the company’s
responsibility to fulfill customer’s requirements. Customers expect what they paid for, if
they are not satisfied, they will hesitate to purchase again. From above table most of the
respondents (51.16%) are having problem with the delivery time and secondly with quality
of the product.

4.11. Respondents are satisfied with customer care of which site

Valid Frequency Percent Cumulative

Percent

Amazon 17 39.53 39.53

Flipkart 23 53.49 93.02

Both are not good 3 6.98 100.00

Table 4.11 Opinion on customer care

Interpretation: Respondents will choose e-commerce sites when they are fully satisfied
with their complete services. After purchase also, company have to take responsible for
customer’s requirement. Flipkart made its mark in customer’s heart. Respondents (53.49%)
of them are happy with the Flipkart customer support. This is actually a better result to
Flipkart, because people are positive towards it. Amazon is not far behind with 39.53%
votes.

39
4.12. Respondent’s opinion on confidentiality

Valid Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

Extremely Confident 9 20.93 20.93

Moderately Confident 21 48.84 69.77

Not at all confident 5 11.63 81.40

Slightly confident 8 18.50 100.00

Table 4.12 Confidentiality table

Interpretation: Security and privacy is a major concern in e-commerce. When data is

stored elsewhere there is always a risk of data getting leaked. As can be seen from the table
above, 48.84% of respondents are moderately confident about the security and privacy of
their personal information. This implies that the respondents have concerns about their
security and privacy in e-commerce transactions.

4.13. Cross tabulation of gender and how often they shop online

Gender How often respondents shop online Total

Once in a Once in 2 More Very rarely

month months frequently

Male 7 7 4 1 19

Female 7 10 6 1 24

Total 14 17 10 2 43

40
Interpretation: From the above table we can interpret that out of 43 respondents, females
are more interested in online shopping as compared to males. Female respondents are
leading in almost all age groups.

4.14. Cross tabulation of age and payment method

Age Respondents payment method Total

Debit Card Credit Cash on Net Paytm,

Card Delivery Banking Paypal,
etc.

< 25 6 1 21 5 33

25-35 2 4 1 6

>35 1 2 3

41
Interpretation: From above table and graph we can interpret that the mindset of
respondents are different when it comes to currency and its security. Most of the people
going for cash on delivery. E-commerce sites are also making payment methods easier by
providing swiping machines to delivery boys. Swiping machines made customers and as
well as delivery boys works easy. Because some payments won’t be exactly round figures,
they may be in rupees such as 513 or 1007. When customers have to pay this kind of
amount that will be difficult to delivery boy to return change some times. By using swipe
machines, we can avoid all these interrupts.

4.15. Cross tabulation of gender and price satisfaction

Age Respondent is satisfied with price of Total

Amazon Flipkart Snapdeal Others

Female 13 9 1 1 24

Male 6 11 1 1 19

42
Interpretation: Flipkart is leading in male respondent’s survey followed by Amazon.
Snapdeal and Paytm have the least number of votes. When it comes to female respondents,
Amazon is leading than the rest of e-commerce big players in India. Flipkart ranks second
with not much difference in the number of votes. Where there are so many exclusive e-
commerce sites especially for girls, still they are choosing reputed and leading ecommerce
sites such as Amazon and Flipkart.

4.16. Cross tabulation of age and occasions

Age Occasion Total

Festival Offers To Gift

< 25 3 28 2 33

25-35 2 5 7

> 35 1 2 3

43
Interpretation: From above table and graph we can interpret that e-commerce sites are
playing their cards very well because of neither gender nor age is not going to stand as
barrier when lots of offers are available in e-commerce sites. Where respondents aged <25
are most interested in purchasing when attractive offers are available apart from other
occasions such as festivals, weddings etc. The respondents in the age group 25-35
(probably employees) also make purchases when attractive offers are available.

44
4.17. Strategies and actions

Acquisition of Flipkart by Walmart

On 4 May 2018, it was reported that the US retail chain Walmart had won a bidding
war with Amazon to acquire a majority stake in Flipkart for US$15 billion. On 9 May 2018,
Walmart officially announced its intent to acquire a 77% controlling stake in Flipkart for
US$16 billion, subject to regulatory approval. Following the proposed purchase, Flipkart
co-founder Sachin Bansal left the company, while the remaining management now report
to Marc Lore, CEO of Walmart e-commerce US. Walmart president Doug McMillon cited
the "attractiveness" of the market, explaining that their purchase "is an opportunity to
partner with the company that is leading transformation of e-commerce in the market".
Indian traders protested against the deal, considering the deal a threat to domestic business.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on 11 May 2018,
Walmart stated that a condition of the deal prescribed the possibility that Flipkart's current
minority shareholders "may require Flipkart to effect an initial public offering following
the fourth anniversary of closing of the Transactions at a valuation no less than that paid
by Walmart"

Following the announcement of Walmart's deal, eBay announced that it would sell
its stake in Flipkart back to the company for approximately US$1.1 billion, and re-launch
its own Indian operations. The company stated that "there is huge growth potential for e-
commerce in India and significant opportunity for multiple players to succeed in India's
diverse, domestic market." Softbank Group also sold its entire 20% stake to Walmart,
without disclosing terms of the sale. The acquisition was completed on 18 August 2018.
Walmart also provided US$2 billion in equity funding to the company.

On 13 November 2018, Flipkart CEO Binny Bansal resigned, after facing an

allegation of "serious personal misconduct". Walmart stated that "while the investigation
did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant's assertions against Binny, it did
reveal other lapses in judgment, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how Binny
responded to the situation.
45
Interpretation:

Since amazon entered the Indian ecommerce market, Flipkart has been finding it
very difficult to survive the competition from Amazon. Amazon ha a much wider reach
globally than Flipkart which was based only in India. Amazon found the Indian ecommerce
market very attractive and having tremendous growth opportunity.

Meanwhile, Walmart was looking for ways to enter the Indian Market. Had
Walmart directly entered the Indian market the competition would have been even more
cut throat with only Amazon having the ability to withstand the competition from Walmart.
Flipkart would have eventually collapsed. But Walmart was facing legal and other
restrictions to set up business in India. Eventually, Walmart found acquiring majority
shares of Flipkart as a much better alternative. The result is that now Walmart has entered
the Indian market, Flipkart survived and can now even compete with Amazon.

46
4.18. Flipkart’s Big Billion Day vs. Amazon’s Great Indian Sale

Amazon India named the campaign as the Great Indian Festive Sale, with the
hashtag #AmazonFestiveSale. They used different hash tags for every day, such as
#AmazonSaleDay2, #AmazonSaleDay3.

Flipkart started (or rather restarted) its Big Billion Days campaign
(#BigBillionDays) where the brand was marketing itself by highlighting that the big billion
days are back! The campaign dedicated different days to promote each of their key
categories, right from fashion, electronics, books, etc. Interesting PR angles with Sachin
Bansal (CEO – Flipkart) and Binny Bansal themselves went out to deliver the orders to
customers (took selfies and posted on social media)

4.18.1. Campaign Impact

A survey was conducted with consumers and panelists to gauge the effectiveness
and impact of both the campaigns.

Consumer dipstick: Amongst 21 to 40 year olds from Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore

 88 respondents (Total respondents)

 72 respondents (Aware of both the campaigns)

Panel experts: 8 experts with relevant industry experience

47
4.18.2. Campaign Buzz

Awareness through social media 36%

48
 Awareness through social media 52%

Insight:

 Campaign awareness for Flipkart was more than Amazon. However, app and website
visits and the claim for purchases was very similar to both.

49
 Social media awareness of Flipkart was higher as compared to Amazon, probably due
to social media reach and the reach of #BigBillionDay which was 13 million compared
to 1.9 million of amazon.

4.18.3. Campaign Consistency

More than half of the panelists claimed that Flipkart’s campaign was more
consistent than Amazon’s.

“From what I could gauge on social, Flipkart's daily promotion added an instant
connect to the campaign. Their collaterals and communication maintained consistency.
Amazon, on the other hand, tried to do too many things at once. The result being not a
consistent theme but rather chaos on digital.”

“Flipkart's Big Billion Days campaign clearly stood out when it comes to being
consistent and they had a first mover advantage with the TVF video they launched ahead
of the sale. While on the other hand, Amazon's campaign got overshadowed by Flipkart's
media reach, however they appeared to have a better engagement rate on social media,
especially Twitter.”

Words said by Arif Khan, Planning Director, Cheil India Pvt. Ltd., Gurgaon.

4.18.4. Campaign Exclusivity

Exclusivity of Flipkart’s campaign was acknowledged by half of our panelist,

claiming that #BigBillionDays was more exclusive than #AmazonFestiveSale

“Any brand on this planet can have a name that has "Indian" and "Festive" in its
campaign or communication. Big Billion Days seem like one that has now stuck to Flipkart.”

“The founders of Flipkart delivering goods themselves sure seems an interesting

tactic. The dubsmash concept by Amazon is cliched. Dubsmash became ancient months
ago.”

Words said by Gaba Khan, Co-founder, Get Evangaized.

50
4.18.5. Impact on Brand

BigBillionDays was more effective in terms of brand recall, Amazon on the other
hand was running lot of contests around winning gold and Dubsmash, which resulted in
dilution of the brand’s role.

4.18.6. Parameter Analysis

50%
consumers
didn’t find
any aspect
to be
exclusive

Insights:

 Relevance and credibility for Amazon’s campaign was claimed to be higher, however
the campaign excitement and the potential word of mouth for Flipkart was better than
Amazon.

 Amazon’s brand image of being credible rubbed off pretty well on the campaign,
however Flipkart’s consistent discounts and value proposition to customers made it
more buzzing than the counterpart.

51
4.18.7. Conclusion

 Amazon’s generic approach and engagement through contests resulted in dilution of the
brand’s role. Flipkart on the other hand had a theme that was central to their campaign
and the strong association with the hash tag proved to be effective.

 Word of mouth and excitement resulted in higher buzz for Flipkart’s campaign, however
the brand strength of Amazon being credible and relevant stuck with Amazon

Experts Say:

“Over the last two years, when you hear 'Big Billion Days' Sale, you think of only Flipkart.
They've successfully built that imagery and kept it exclusive. Also learning from last year's
disaster, Flipkart distributed the sale across five days to ensure there aren't any technical
glitches, website crashing, unreasonable price hike and 'sold out' issues and cut down on
its negative sentiments heavily this year. On the other hand, Amazon's 'Great Indian Festive
Sale' was unique by offering deals every 30 minutes but it wasn't exclusive as we've seen
'the great this', and that sale quite often with many brands. Last year, they had 'Diwali
Dhamaka' which was again different.”, Arif Khan Planning Director, Cheil India Pvt. Ltd.,
Gurgaon.

52
4.18.8. Way forward expert suggestions

Amazon.in Flipkart

“The deals mechanism was very good and “Campaign was planned very well, with
a 'new offer every 30 mins' ensured repeat mobile being the focus. I guess it will help
visits, however the Dubsmash and Flipkart to offer more customized offerings
occasional contest ideas diluted the to each user. It will be great to see some
campaign by giving limited noise. IMO, if results in terms of how many people visited
you would've come out with two quick Flipkart during the big billion days,
customer videos on how they've enjoyed conversion rate (in terms of sales), etc. and
and benefited from the sale then that accordingly this data can be used to build
could've given you more weight. Also, you future strategy. I don’t know if there was
dropped 'Diwali Dhamaka' (I may be real time optimization in terms of product
wrong in case you have it planned for next offering. For e.g. if a lot of searches was
month) to give it a new name which doesn't happening for a particular product (we can
build on the digital equity you enjoyed last also call demand) then that product was
year. Lastly, I did check out your pushed more to other users on their app.”
marketplace more than Flipkart because of
the 'authentic' perception and I'm sure your
social media too would've shown you such
trends. You should make something out of
this insight.”

“In my opinion, Dubsmash was a viral “You were consistent throughout the
phenomenon. But it's almost extinct now. campaign, however it would be interesting
Having an overly used cliche as a contest to know how well the 'app only' approach
was rather lame. On the other hand, if paid off? Mr. Punit Soni did tweet out a
possible, they could have utilized tech couple of interesting numbers on the app
borrowed from Amazon US. Even a few sale but considering the Indian digital
days of using their delivery drones as a ecosystem, you might have gained

53
marketing ploy (staged even) could have additional brownie points with continuing
created buzz for Amazon India.” with web sale.”

“Amazon lacked the personal touch. It was “You have a BIG campaign to leverage. Do
just another Diwali sale. They should it. Have some interesting posts around the
consider getting associated with some sale and play well with words. There is no
known Indian celeb faces.” point of just blandly informing your
customers about the same. Your campaign
on digital should make them go and
purchase stuff from your site (even if they
have no plans to do so!). Now that's a
successful conversion.”

54
 Chapter 5: Conclusions and Suggestions

Findings

 Female respondents are showing more interest to do online shopping than male
respondents.

 Customers are preferring quality product from e-commerce sites, even it is bit expensive.

 Flipkart is trying very hard to reach the top position but Amazon India is giving very
tough competition.

 Amazon is leading in aspects like most preferred site, respondents most impressed by
whereas Flipkart is leading in aspects like customer service. Both sites are almost at par
with each other in terms of pricing and referral.

 Snapdeal is now where near Flipkart and Amazon in any aspect. They have to take care
of its products and customer service because of its cheap product quality and less variety
of products making it loose customers.

 Undoubtedly Flipkart and Amazon made their impact on customers very strongly and
captured loyal customers.

 Both Flipkart and Amazon India advertisings are very innovative and attractive.

 Both companies are spending significantly on advertising and promotions.

 People in every age group are interested in offers, if they are in need or not they want to
purchase.

55
 Conclusions:

The study consists all the workflows of top two E-commerce companies in India,
Amazon India, and Flipkart. It has been explained, how these companies are performing
and running perfectly in the competitive world. The innovative and customer-centric
thinking of them to reach more and more consumers is appreciable. They are increasing
their network in every corner of India with the ultimate aim of reaching more customers.
They are making customers work more easy and comfortable. In this competitive E-
commerce market, one company can be on top and rest will follow. After analysis the
survey of consumer behavior about Amazon India and Flipkart, we got our clear winner is
Amazon. Amazon India’s customers are more satisfied as compared to Flipkart because of
their return policy, good reviews from consumers, fast delivery, and delivery services in
remote area across India. Amazon’s marketing and advertising are outstanding as compare
to Flipkart, it is world’s top E-commerce company and Amazon spending so much money
for advertising and promotion its brands. Amazon studied Indian market and behavior of
Indian customers and made its roots stronger in India. Flipkart is a new company as
compare to Amazon but still, Flipkart is giving tough competition to Amazon India. Now
Flipkart is trying to globalize its products in the international market with the help of eBay
India. Maybe Flipkart will take some time to overcome, but definitely, these both
companies are doing very well in Indian E-commerce market.

Suggestions:

Amazon has become leading E-commerce Company in India, few years before
Amazon India was behind in competition with Flipkart, but as we know Amazon India is
a customer-centric company. It always tries to provide better services to its customers.
Flipkart started from the very low budget but just because of its quick success, they got
funding from big investors. Flipkart successfully placed itself as India’s largest online store
with a huge range of products. However, Flipkart still needs to work on its weaknesses and
core competence. Flipkart should pay more attention to customers’ satisfaction and on their
queries because according to this survey majority of people are not satisfied with their
return policies and customer services. Flipkart’s products packages should be developed
because they are receiving many customers’ complaints about their packaging. Flipkart

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should open warehouses in the urban and remote area for fast delivery service. Flipkart
should replace its marketing strategies with online marketing techniques, these techniques
help to build its online presence more strong through search engine optimization techniques
because most of the customers like to search from Google for online shopping products.

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 Appendix

Questionnaire:

 Age

< 25

25-35

> 35

 Gender

Male

Female

 Have you ever done online shopping?

Yes

No

 How often do you shop online?

Once in a month

Once in two months

More frequently

Very rarely

 Which online site do you prefer?

Flipkart

Amazon

Snapdeal

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 Paytm

Others

 How do you make payments when shopping online?

Debit Card

Credit card

Net banking

Cash on delivery

Third Party (Paytm, Paypal, etc.)

 Which online services is more satisfied in terms of products, customer care and
delivery service?

Flipkart

Amazon

Others

 How do you choose online shopping site?

Referred by friends

Advertisements

Online reviews

 Have you encountered any problems with online shopping site? If yes, by which
one?

Flipkart

Amazon

Others
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 In terms of pricing with which online shopping site are you satisfied?

Flipkart

Amazon

Snapdeal

Others

 Which online site will you refer to your friends and family?

Flipkart

Amazon

Snapdeal

Others

 On which occasions do you make purchases?

Festival

Offers

To Gift

Weddings

 Does promotional activities affect your purchasing decisions?

Agree

Disagree

Neither agree nor disagree

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 How confident are you that your personal information is kept confidential when
buying products online?

Extremely Confident

Moderately Confident

Slightly confident

Not at all confident

 What kind of problem did you face while shopping online?

Delay in delivery

Cheap quality of product

Product damage

Non delivery

 Customer assistance after purchase is better for which online shopping site?

Flipkart

Amazon

Both are not good

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