Flipkart, India’s homegrown e-commerce marketplace, continues to strengthen its seller base and is on-track to add 1.2 lakh new sellers to its platform by December 2021. Flipkart has already onboarded around 75,000 sellers on its platform over the last few months as MSMEs and small business entrepreneurs continue to be enthused by the potential of e-commerce ahead of the festive season. Currently, the Flipkart Marketplace supports digital commerce for 3.75 lakh sellers and is steadily working towards taking this number to 4.2 lakh sellers on its platform by the year end. Since the pandemic, the Flipkart marketplace has seen an encouraging response from MSMEs who want to take their business online with e-commerce. The new sellers and MSME base predominantly come from Tier 2 and 3 markets such as Agra, Indore, Jaipur, Panipat, Rajkot, Surat, and many others.
The Flipkart marketplace platform has also witnessed the rise in categories such as General Merchandise, Home and Kitchen, and Personal Care. Rajneesh Kumar, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Flipkart Group, said, “Our continuous effort is to ensure that every small business, MSME, women-entrepreneur, artisan, weaver or handicraft marker is an active participant in the upcoming festive season. We are also very excited to see partnership with Kiranas growing rapidly as part of our last-mile delivery programme.” Each of these 1.2 lakh new sellers have the potential to generate additional 4 lakh direct and indirect jobs in the ecosystem, unlocking the potential of e-commerce as a sector contributing to economic growth. To support the business continuity and growth of these sellers during the festive season, Flipkart has enabled a next-day payment program that allows sellers to receive their order payments within a day. Sellers can avail of a 30-day free trial on this program. Should the seller choose to continue availing the program beyond this period, a nominal transaction fee will be applicable for the extended period. This construct allows a continuous flow of working capital for the sellers, many of whom face financial challenges that hinder their business growth.
Further, as part of the company’s Growth Capital seller financing programme, Flipkart is offering sellers customized offerings from its lenders based on projected growth. This will not just ensure the necessary financial aid that a seller will need to boost their supply for the festive season but will also enable them to reach their desired potential during the upcoming Big Billion Days sales. These loans come with low rates of interest to make them more accessible to MSMEs selling on the platform. Flipkart also hosted a 45 day-long Learning and Development Event for its pan-India seller base to apprise them with best practices and insights to boost their business during the upcoming festive season. The event enables Flipkart’s countrywide seller ecosystem to connect with its Marketplace’s leadership team through unique efforts. Sellers got an opportunity to use engaging and gamified content and learning modules such as Super Vyaprio to help them understand how they could grow their business.
This year, these were further coupled with seller-led webinars and an all-new virtual Flipkart Business Hours session where sellers could experience the festive rush. The event this year witnessed an increase in participation from sellers in comparison to 2020. Sellers from smaller cities such as Agra, Faridabad, Indore participated in the programme for the first time. “The seller webinars are really useful, they teach a lot about how to use the seller dashboard. Many of us are new to Flipkart and might not have explored the dashboard much, but through these webinars, we can learn a lot of their functionalities and how we can grow with these,” said Chitra Vyas, Shopping and Whopping Owner, Flipkart Marketplace Seller. Manish, Katela Creations, Flipkart Marketplace Seller, added, “After I got in touch with the Flipkart team and saw some of their videos I realized the importance of visibility of my products. I latched on PLA and created ads with help of Flipkart that has helped me increase my sales during the festive season.” Flipkart recently launched its #KarloJashnKiTayyari campaign to show the happy frenzy and preparatory mood of the sellers and MSME community as they look forward to the upcoming festive season. The campaign captures the mood of sellers from different geographic locations and showcases effectively how despite the varied locations, the seller community stands together during the festive season, as they cater to pan-India consumer demands through e-commerce.
About Flipkart
Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce company, headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, and incorporated in Singapore as a private limited company. Flipkart, which has redefined shopping in India, works on a B2C (business to consumer model). Flipkart started off with a direct-to-consumer model selling books and some other products, before turning to a marketplace model which connect sellers and buyers and expanding its catalogue. Flipkart was founded in October 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. It is one of India’s leading E-commerce marketplaces and is headquartered in Bengaluru. The company initially started as an online bookstore. Later, it also started selling other items such as movies and mobile phones. While working at a fast-paced, innovator company such as Flipkart can sometimes be taxing, it can also be hugely rewarding for those wanting to experience trailblazing career growth.