On Friday, Flipkart CEO Sachin Bansal decided to get out of his comfortable air-conditioned office and went out to learn about the challenges of delivery boys and to gain insights into the online buyer's soul.
In a first, the corporate honcho went out in the sun and delivered goods to various customers.
After bringing the shopping experience to homes, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal will now show up at the doorsteps of some customers, personally delivering goods.
"Over the next 15-20 days, everyone will go out and deliver to customers, starting with some of the leaders," said Binny Bansal, cofounder of Flipkart, India's largest online marketplace.
While Flipkart has grown to become an e-commerce juggernaut valued at over $15 billion, the gesture is also a reminder of Flipkart's early days back in 2007, when the two Bansals scurried across Bengaluru on their scooters to deliver books...
His first delivery went very well. And Bansal said, the customer was happy too.
However, not everything was easy. Bansal had to wait for a while for his second customer to finish bathing before he could deliver the good.
But he appears to have had a good time...
He also posted selfies with his fellow delivery mates.
"We want to learn more about the market, customers and understand what the need is for the future — also to thank them," said Bansal, who has seen his personal fortune swell because of Flipkart's valuation Both the Bansals debuted on Forbes' rich list this year with an estimated wealth of about $1.3 billion each.
Joining them for the home visits will be Mukesh Bansal, who heads Flipkart's ecommerce business, and leaders including Punit Soni, chief product officer, Ankit Nagori, chief business officer, and KV Anand, senior vice president - customer experience. Earlier this week, after Flipkart kicked off Big Billion Days, a fiveday shopping festival offering discounts, the company sent 50,000 postcards to prospective buyers in some of India's remotest areas, encouraging them to shop online.
Unlike last year's Big Billion Day, this time there were fewer glitches. "This not only changes things for Flipkart, but it changes the course of ecommerce in India. It pushes the boundaries for everybody in the ecosystem, including sellers and logistics providers," Bansal said. An average seller will now easily be able to handle five times the regular shipments, he said. Flipkart is targeting sales of over 10 million units of different products over the five days. "That's the sales we do in a month," said Bansal.
Over 3 million phones were sold on the first two days of the sale. Traffic to Flipkart, mainly through its mobile app, reached 70 million visits, the company said.
Anticipating huge demand, the company had moved operations to a bigger data centre in Chennai earlier this year. It also ramped up its logistics and seller capabilities. From less than 4,000 sellers on its platform last year, Flipkart now has 50,000 sellers.
"We've had to pick up a month's worth of products in five days and we've already shipped lakhs of units to customers," Bansal said.
