To find the factors that leads a website user to return to or recommend the website Flipkart.

com

To understand the customer awareness on Flipkart.com

To determine the factors responsible for customer satisfaction.

No research is complete without admitting the limitations that was faced while conducting a study
which will contribute to present learning. This study too like others have certain constrains which
have been discussed below.

The study is restricted to Orissa state only.

The study is mainly concentrated on Flipkart.com

The sample of the size will be limited to time and resources.

The information will be collected valid until there is any technical change or any innovation.

The result is assuming that the respondents have given accurate information.

Road Ahead
The e-commerce industry been directly impacting the micro, small & medium
enterprises (MSME) in India by providing means of financing, technology and
training and has a favourable cascading effect on other industries as well. The Indian
e-commerce industry has been on an upward growth trajectory and is expected to
surpass the US to become the second largest e-commerce market in the world by
2034.  Technology enabled innovations like digital payments, hyper-local logistics,
analytics driven customer engagement and digital advertisements will likely support
the growth in the sector. The growth in e-commerce sector will also boost
employment, increase revenues from export, increase tax collection by ex-chequers,
and provide better products and services to customers in the long-term. Rise in
smartphone usage is expected to rise 84 per cent to reach 859 million by 2022.
E-retail market is expected to continue its strong growth, by registering a CAGR of over 35 per
cent and to reach Rs 1.8 trillion (US$ 25.75 billion) by FY20. 

Rise of E-Commerce- The Indian Scenario

Introduction

What is E-Commerce ?

Electronic commerce, commonly known as E-commerce or eCommerce, is trading in Foducts or

services using computer networks, such as the Internet. Electronic commerce draws on technologies
such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing,
online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems,
and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide
Web for at least one part of the transaction, life cycle, although it may also use other technologies
such as e-mail.

E-commerce businesses may employ some or all of the following:

• Online shopping web sites for retail sales direct to consumers • Providing or participating in online
marketplaces, which process third-party business-to-consumer or consumer-to-consumer sales •
Business-to-business buying and selling • Gathering and using demographic data through web
contacts and social media • Business-to-business electronic data interchange • Marketing to
prospective and established customers by e-mail or fax (for example, with newsletters) • Engaging in
pretail for launching new products and services

According to an Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) survey, the
online retail market in India may grow to Rs.70 billion (over $1.30 billion) by 2015 from Rs.20 billion
in 2011 as internet access improves

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Rise of E-Commerce- The Indian Scenario

India has always been a land of great potential. The socioeconomic condition of the

country has improved many folds after in.pendence and India is now emerging as one of

the leading counties in the world. Moreover with a population of over 100 crore and a

growth rate of above 6%, it can be compared to a marketing giant. Hence it can be well

judged why online shopping in India is rising at fast pace over the days. As technology is

spreading to the remotest villages and many job opportunities are presenting themselves

to the unemployed youth more and more people are gaining awareness and the money to

purchase expensive and luxt.ous items over the intemet.

Online Shopping

Which compan y flashes in your m hid first? Fliphart,.-Imazon,eBay etc.

Well, let us talk about the home-gr.., Indian, e-commerce site `Flipkart., also

considered as the Amazon of India

A Company which started with just 4 lakhs is now worth over more than 2000 crores

According to the .ta Fliplcart has provided to Ministry of Corporate Affairs; the

company's revenue in 2011-12 was $77 million (Rs. 500 crore). For the fiscal 2012-13,

their revenue is estimated to be $350 million. With this huge success flipkart is becoming

the fate of online retail in India. This paper attempts to throw light on the gr.vth of

online retail business in India with special reference to flipkart (analyzing the consumer

feedback about the online business model of flipkart)

The invention has opened a whole new world of possibilities for us. Not only we can

communicate with the person we love within moments but nowadays many vital tasks

like jobs, shopping, socializing and many others can be .ne easily at the convenience of
our homes. The concept of online shopping is a relatively new one and it enables us to

buy all our favourite goo. and accessories over the inter.. This not only saves time but

also we can get the Foducts at a much discounted price and that too at our homes. There

are many online stores that have developed in recent times like letsshop.in, flipcart.com

and many others. These stores host a wide range of products li. bags, shoes, books,

gadgets and many others. To purchase any product you have to visit the site and click on

the product that you would like to purchase and the product will be delivered to you

within a week maximum. It's that simple.

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Rise of 1,-(oininerce,he Indian Scenario

Literature Review

"In online buying, the rate of diffusion and adoption of the online buying amongst consumers is still
relatively low in India. In view of above problem an empirical study of online buying behaviour was
undertaken. Base on literature review, four predominant psychographic parameters namely,
attitude, motivation, personality and trust were studied with respect to online buying. The online
buying decision process models based on all the four parameters were designed after statistical
analysis. These models were integrated with business intelligence, imowledge management and
data mining to design Behavioural Business Intelligence framework with a cohesive view of online
buyer behaviour. For better understanding the factors of inter. and consumer shopping behaviour
towards intemet shopping, this chapter would provide academic research reviews and relative ideas
expressed in the literature that associated with this subject. Furthermore, a number of hypotheses
will be tested to answer the research questions that mentioned already in the introduction. Due to
the recent research shows the interne shopping becomes a full and effective business model,
therefore there are several studies that already investigated more or less related on interne
shopping and consumer behaviour. In the following chapter, some point of view will be taken from
literatures, and needs careful review to achieve them as the basis of the subsequent research invest
igation." -Archana Shrivastava & Ujwal Lanjewar (2011)

Advantages of Online Shopping

1) Saves time: Online shopping saves us a huge amount of time. We can buy any of our favourite
products from our home only and need not visit the malls.

2) Cost Effective: The products can be bought at a much discounted rate by shopping online. This is
because online stores offer huge discounts and lucrative offers on the purchase of each and every
product. This is done to attract more customers from all over the world.

3) Other Facilities: The products are freely shipped and delivered at our doorstep without any extra
charge. Moreover if we find them not suited to our purpose we can return them without purchasing
any time. Apart from that if we do purchase these items

Page 6 of 37

Rise of E-Commerce- The Indian Scenario

and find them to be defective then we can return them within fourteen days of the purchase and we
will get all the money back.

4) Shop any store worldwide: Never again be limited geographically. Many merchan. do not have
physical stores in every state, and cenainly not in every country. When you shop online, you can
browse through stores around the block or around the globe! Discover amazing new items from
exotic places that you perhaps have never even heard of before.

5) Ship your gifts directly: When you order online, you can send gifts or even have gift baskets
delivered directly to their recipient. This means you can avoid long waits at the post office and you
can get your gift delivered faster. Many stores even offer customized cards and gift wrapping to go
along with your present.

6) Find it you might not see in stores: Since brick and mortar stores are limited on space, merchants
usually don't carry all of the items they sell in store. Online, you can find their entire inventory, along
with many choices of colors, styles, and even customization options. Shop on the Internet so you can
find exactly what you want.

7) No more waiting in line and pushing through crov, ds: Malls and retail stores can be chaotic,
especially during a big sale or a holiday season. Don't stress yourself out, just shop from home! You'll
never have to stand in a long checkout line or weave your way through crowds just to get the items
you want. Shop online and you can stay in the comfort of your own home

8) The Internet never closes: You can shop anytime online 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Online
stores never close, t you never have to worry about making time to go to the store. Online shopping
is perfect for night owls or anyone who is just too busy to make a trip to the store.

The act of buying things from websites and not shops certainly took a long time to blend in with the
shopping mind-set of the Indian customer. The current scenario is one, which is witnessing a change
in this mind-set. There have been many websites that have been launched with the objective of
selling products to customers.

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Rise of E-Commerce- The Indian Scenario

Products belonging to various product sectors are now being sold on these websites and the range is
quite a large one right from expensive laptops and LCD televisions to namdane grocery items. The
frequency of B2C transactions has ceftainly increased over time in the Indian subcontinent. There
are many shopping websites, which are now witnessing a decisive surge in traffic (this statement is
being made while keeping in view the performance of shopping websites in the last five years). With
an increase in the number of persons visiting these websites, they have also become ideal platforms
for advertisemen. and banners of different brands.

Online shopping in India, is ceftainly witnessing a period, which entails things such as rising number
of online sales and fantastic revenue and profit figures.

There have been many products, which have caught the fancy of online shoppers and one of them is
a handset. Handsets, irrespective of the brand, are being sold in magnanimous numbers on different
websites. All the major market players in the telecommunications sector, FMCG sector, services,
mobile sector etc. are doing quite well with the sales that they are getting from .s online platform.
The money that is earned is being put to good use by using it in the betterment of the respective
R&D departments.
Apart, from the businesses doing well, the customers are also given many fantastic features. Some of
them include things such as free gifts with every online purchase while some involve special offers
that are quite economical and affordable.

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Rise of 1,-Commerce- l'he Indian Scenario

Growth of online retailing in India

India e-commerce has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 30% since FY09, and is
expected to be $18 billion (around Rs 1,116,00crore) opportunity by FY15. The findings part of
report: Indian Ecommerce-Tip of the Iceberg, by Macquire Equities Research back this high gro. rate
on rising interne population, over 300 million middle class population, increasing mobile penetration
and low levels of e-commerce activity.

"Compared to the west, India's ecommerce industry is still in its infancy. E-commerce contributes
only 0.6% of the country's GDP vs 1-3% for other cotmtries, with only 12% of India's online
population transacting online vs 64% for the US and over 50% for China," said AtulSoni and
NitinMohta in the report. This growth will further be accentuated by companies going in for public
listing. In the Indian context, only two interne-based companies are listed on the markets, including
Infoedge, which runs India's largest job portal (naukri.com), and justdial, which is India's largest local
search site.

The nature of Indian e-commerce is also different. Travel has the lion's share of 71% of Indian e-
commerce, but e-tailing has grown the fastest, at a 59% CAGR between FY09-13E, to reach 16%
market share. Compared to the west, India's ecommerce industry is still in its infancy, but we believe
that it may become a bigger part of the entire retail universe than in the west.

"We believe that for many young Indians, Online shopping may become their primary way to shop
throughout their lives. Whenever significant opportunities such as e-commerce present themselves,
many market participants compete aggressively to try to emerge as undisputed leaders to gain
brand recognition and customer loyalty, and oftentimes these players change their business model
along the way to grow with the market," said the report.

Page. of 37

Rise of E-Cornmerce- The Indian Scenario

Rise of 1,-Commerce- l'he Indian Scenario

Growth of online retailing in India

India e-commerce has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 30% since FY09, and is
expected to be $18 billion (around Rs 1,116,00crore) opportunity by FY15. The findings part of
report: Indian Ecommerce-Tip of the Iceberg, by Macquire Equities Research back this high gro. rate
on rising interne population, over 300 million middle class population, increasing mobile penetration
and low levels of e-commerce activity.

"Compared to the west, India's ecommerce industry is still in its infancy. E-commerce contributes
only 0.6% of the country's GDP vs 1-3% for other cotmtries, with only 12% of India's online
population transacting online vs 64% for the US and over 50% for China," said AtulSoni and
NitinMohta in the report. This growth will further be accentuated by companies going in for public
listing. In the Indian context, only two interne-based companies are listed on the markets, including
Infoedge, which runs India's largest job portal (naukri.com), and justdial, which is India's largest local
search site.

The nature of Indian e-commerce is also different. Travel has the lion's share of 71% of Indian e-
commerce, but e-tailing has grown the fastest, at a 59% CAGR between FY09-13E, to reach 16%
market share. Compared to the west, India's ecommerce industry is still in its infancy, but we believe
that it may become a bigger part of the entire retail universe than in the west.

"We believe that for many young Indians, Online shopping may become their primary way to shop
throughout their lives. Whenever significant opportunities such as e-commerce present themselves,
many market participants compete aggressively to try to emerge as undisputed leaders to gain
brand recognition and customer loyalty, and oftentimes these players change their business model
along the way to grow with the market," said the report.

Page. of 37

METHODOLOGY

Research Design

The type of design being used for making this project is Meta-Analysis Design.

Meta-analysis is an analytical methodology designed to systematically evaluate and summarize the

results from a number of individual studies, thereby, increasing the overall sample size and the
ability of the researcher to study effects of interest.

Statement of the Problem

The study is being conducted for Online Shopping in Kankurgachi Area of Kollmta City only, to find
out the customer preferences in choosing Flipkart. It is required to find out the preferences based on
certain aspects (Income, levels selection of products, satisfaction level of customers).

Objectives • To study the growth of online retail business in India. • To explore the online business
of model of Flipkart. • To analyse the Customer Feedback of Flipkart over other available online
retail stores in India. • To find out the mode by which the customer became aware of Flipkart • To
reveal the satisfaction level of the consumer

Need of the Project

Nowadays retail stores are facing more competition in retailing business. Good store design increase
the visiting of more customers in to the store and increase the store goodwill, and price also plays
major factor to use the customer giving preference and selection of the store. And as industry
research has shown, there is much need to Imow the customer expectations, customer preferences
and their store choice's(features) and we will find out solutions for designing effective store which
will getting more customers and getting more profits.

Scope of the Study • Finding out the sfrengths and weaknesses of Flipkart • Finding the number of
future purchases • Finding the customer satisfaction and their means of awareness of Flipkart •
Finding the perception among the competitors • Finding out the perception of the customers about
Flipkart

Data Collection Method

• Primary Data
Primary data was collected through the survey method (questionnaire observation and interview)
from the respondents. Observations regarding the rise of online shopping trends. The questionnaire
aimed at studying the customers preference and feedback for the online shopping sites flipkart.
Unstructured interview was conducted for some of the

respondents to find out the drawbac. of the online model of flipkart • Secondary Data Secondary
data was collected thorough anions websites and articles available on

the interne. Sampling Size Sample size: For the research the sample size of,

• 100 responden. were ta.n out of which 80% of the population are frequent users of online
shopping. • T. geographical area is limited within an area of Kankurgachi, Kolkata.

Sampling Procedure To obtain the representative sample, a non-probability sample can be drawn. In
this study the method of selecting samples is Convenience sampling.

Tools

The tools used for analyzing data are rating method; graphs, pie charts etc. Questionnaire is
distributed to the individual respondents and special care has been taken to ma. him/her feel
comfonable so that, he/she could answer all the questions. This method is followed to get unbiased
answers.

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Rise of E-Commerce- The Indian Scenario

Technique of Aimlysis

The data collected from the customer are transcripted to the worksheet in the form of tally bars and
analyzed by statistical tools by drawing tables and graphs, inferences were drawn on a marketing
concept and conversation. Based on the marketing concepts findings of the research were driven
and recommendations are made.

Limitation of the Study

It is not possible for any market study to make it accurate due to many hurdles in the collection and
computation of data. Some limitations of the study are listed below

• The sampling frame to conduct the study has been restricted to area near Kankurgachi, Kolkata.

• Respondents show reluctance towards giving correct information.

• Findings of the study are based on the assumption that respondents have disclosed in the
questionnaire.

• Time was a major constraint.

Page L3of 37

Rise of E-Commerce,lie Indian Scenario

Conceptual Framework/ National and International Scenario

Flipkart Success Story

When they were starting out, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansalwould get on a motorbike to make the
rounds of book warehouses across Bangalore, ride back to their two-bedroom apartment and
package orders for online customers. It was a humble beginning for hvo former software developers
for Amazon.com who set out in 2007 to beat their one-time employer at its own game long before
Amazon entered India

The firm's success mantra: employing technology for speedy and accurate delivery to customers.

Sachin and Binny Bansal co-founded the e-commerce site M 2007 after resigning from their jobs at
Amazon India. With Rs. 4 lakh in seed capital and just the two of them as employees, they were
potmcing on a demand-supply gap in online bookselling. The duo initially did everything, from
Fogramming, forging supplier relationships and book procurement to logistics, packing and shipping.
"It was a minimal start and a case of figuring out things as they came," Sachin recalls. "We started
earning customer goodwill, and what followed was phenomenal word-of-mouth publicity. We
became profitable in six months."

In 2007, Flipkart started by offering 50,000 titles. Today, it offers four million. It has 500,000
registered users, and has sold 750,000 books so far. Half the buyers have returned to buy a second
book.

There are websites that offer better discounts, but Flipkart plans to focus on expanding logistics and
adding value. "For now, we are not joining the pricing game. The discoun. and free shipping are
possible because of our sales volumes, and low expenses on overheads like rent - all of which we are
passing on to the customer." The cash-on-Page 14of 37

Rise of E-Cornmerce- The Indian Scenario

delivery (COD) scheme for those who hesitate to pay online owing to security fears now brings in 30
per cent of the revenue. Flipkart also continually tweaks its website, for that is where customer
satisfaction first meets the technology. A preview of select pages from books will soon be up. Users
have been demanding a loyalty scheme, and that too is being wor.d o.. A better search engine, a
simpler payment mechanism...the wish list stretches.

When you browse the website, add items to the shopping cart, and confirm your order, you trigger
Flipkart's automated communication system. It reads your postal address code and routes the
purchase order to one of the company, four warehouses - in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore.
If the book is not in stock, the nearest supplier is automatically queried. When the book is available,
it is packed and pic.d up by a courier company within four to 24 hours. The book arrives at your
address within one to three days. According to Sachin, the company is "aiming at 24-hour delivery of
most books because that's what the customer seeks. In the future, a customer can order a book in
the morning and get it by evening."

Regional Market The company is also busy switching to selling music, movies, mobile phones and
game, besides books. Flipkart is also deepening its presence in book selling by targeting the regional
language book market, which has largely been untapped. "More books are read in regional
languages. It is tough to get a book supplier on board, but once that is in place, this business will
further explode," says Sachin.

Things are easier said than done, To realize our dreams and that also in such a grand manner is really
a tough task. The founders of Flipkart have .obably conquered their dreams with the amazing
success of Flipkart. Flipkart is something which has really opened up the Indian e-commerce market
and that also in a big way.
Flipkart began with selling books, since books are easy to procure, target market which reads books
is in abundance, boo. provide more margin, are easy to pack and deliver, do not get damaged in
transit and most importantly books are not very expensive, so the amount of money a customer has
to spend to try out one's service for one time is very minimal. Flipkart sold only books for the first
two years. Flipkart started with the consignment model (procurement based on demand) i.e. they
had ties with 2 distributors in Bangalore, whenever a customer ordered a book, they used to
personally procure the book from the dealer, pack the book in their office and then courier the
same. In the initial months the founder's personal cell numbers used to be the customer support
numbers. So, in the start they tried their best to provi. good service, focus on the website - easy to
browse and order and hassle-free, and stove hard to resolve any customer issues. Since there were
not any established players in the market, this allowed them a lot of space to grow, and they did in
fact grew very rapidly.

The company started from 2 employees and now has around 4500 employees Flipkart started with
consignment model as discussed above, since most of the customer issues like delivery delays etc.
result from procurement model, the company started opening its own warehouses as it started
getting more investment. The company opened its first warehouse in Bangalore and later on opened
warehouses in Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. Today the company works with more than500 suppliers.
As on date more than 80% orders of Flipkart are han.ed via warehouses which helps in quick and
efficient service.

A humble beginning from books, Flipkart now has a gamut of products ranging from: Cell phones,
laptops, computers, cameras, games, music, audio players, TV's, healthcare products, washing
machines etc. etc. Still, Flipkart derives around 50% of its revenue from selling books online. Flipkart
is the In.an market leader in selling books both offline and online, it enjoys an online share of around
80%. The electronic items have a large number of players like Naaptol, Letsbuy, Indiaplam, Tradus,
Infibeam, Yebhi etc. The electro.c market share is distributed among them in .fferent u.nown
Foportions.

India has around 13.5 crore intemet users today where as the number of homes with Cable and
Satellite (C&S) television is 10.5 crore. The expected internet users will reach a figure of 30 crore by
2014 and C8tS homes are expected to be 14 crore by 2014. Thus India has a tremendous interne
growth and with the customers getting accustomed to e-commerce, the future of e-commerce
sector is definitely rosy. An approximated 25 lac people have transacted online this year, the number
is all set to increase with time. Also to mention most of the Flipkart customers use internet from
PCs/Laptops to orthr gooth. The use of mobile inter. is very less at the moment, but with the advent
of smart phones the use of mobile intemet for e-commerce transactions will soar with time. India
has 8 crore mobile net users at the moment, the number is expected to swell to 22.5 crore by 2014.

Factors that lead to the grand success of Flipkart

1) They always strove to provide great customer service. Flipkart customers are happier than with
some of their competitors like Traths.in, Indiaplaza.com, I have myself experienced this couple of
times.

2) Their website is great, easy to use, easy to browse through the products, add produc. to wish list
or to a cart, get product reviews and opinions, pre-order products, make payments using different
methods, in short hassle- free and convenient.

3) A very important point is that they introduced the option of cash on delivery and card on delivery,
this way people demonstrated more confidence in buying Foducts. An interesting is that fact, today
Flipkart sells 20 products/min and has a massive customer base, still more than 60% of the Flipkart's
customers use Cash on Delivery and card on delivery methods. This is because of two reasons, one is
many people th not know how to make payments online. And secondly people do not have immense
trust in e-commerce in India Flipkart also provides a 30 thy replacement guarantee on its products
and EMI options to its customers for making payments.

4) Flipkart's reason of success is that it has a great customer retention rate, it has around 15 lac
individual customers and more than 70% customers are repeat customers i.e. they shop various
times each year. The company targets to have a customer base of 1 crore by 2015.

Rise 01E-Commerce- The Indian Scenario

Flipkart Marketing Strategy Flipkart has been mostly marketed by word of mouth advertising.
Customer satisfaction has been their best marketing medium. Flipkart very wisely used SEO (Search
Engine Optimization) and Google Ad-words as the marketing tools to have a far reach in the online
world. Flipkart.com official Facebook page has close to 9 lac likes'. Flipkart recently launched a series
of 3 a. with the tag line - "No Kidding No worries". Kids were used to create the adverts to send o.
the message - if a kid can do it, you can also do it. The message is very clear to make people more
comfortable with Flipkart, to generate a great customer relationship and loyalty on the basis of great
product prices and excellent customer service. All in all to create a great customer experience.

Future Road Map Going forward electronics will be given more focus. Flipkart has recently added a
string of electronic items like calculators, water purifiers, microwave ovens, washing machines, dish
washers, vacuum cleaners etc.

Flipkart has opened a music store which sells CD's and DVD's of movies music releases and music
albums. Flipkart has also acquired Bollywood movie content from Chalcpak. Since digital media in
going to rise in near future, Flipkart is geared up for the same. Soon it will start offering digital
content like movies and songs online, as in the customers can pay and stream online digital content.
Flipkart will also provide e-books very soon.