Flipkart CEO Turns Delivery Boy! Will be delivering for next few days!

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.

Doing deliveries today in Bangalore. Feeling excited. pic.twitter.com/bnZY7iadQJ

— Sachin Bansal (@_sachinbansal) October 16, 2015

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.

Just completed my first delivery of the day to a super happy happy customer.

— Sachin Bansal (@_sachinbansal) October 16, 2015

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.

Waiting for the second customer to finish his bath.

— Sachin Bansal (@_sachinbansal) October 16, 2015

But he appears to have had a good time...

Some nice conversations with the third and fourth customers.

— Sachin Bansal (@_sachinbansal) October 16, 2015

Delivered shoes and shirt and chatted for quite a while ... pic.twitter.com/cw9c8W3kcg

— Sachin Bansal (@_sachinbansal) October 16, 2015

He also posted selfies with his fellow delivery mates.

My delivery mates who have been very patient with me so far. Vinay and Nagaraj ... pic.twitter.com/1dlzXwMC5G

— Sachin Bansal (@_sachinbansal) October 16, 2015

"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.

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Flipkart adds new social feature Ping to app; has no plans to go app-only anytime soon

eCommerce major Flipkart today said it is focused on developing products for mobile devices but has not decided on the timeline to go app-only.
The Bengaluru-based firm, which today added a social feature ‘Ping’ to its app, has about 50 million monthly active users of its mobile app.

“We are focusing on mobile. There is a huge market. 900 million people today have mobile phones in the country…

However, there is no timeline on shutting down any other format,” Flipkart Chief Product Officer Punit Soni told reporters here. Flipkart is one of the country’s largest online market place and competes with the likes of Snapdeal, Amazon and smaller players in the country.

Myntra, a company that Flipkart acquired last year, has already gone app-only. Talking about Ping, Soni said the idea is to add the social experience to online shopping.

“Traditionally, when people shopped, they would ask their family and friends for opinion. For online, it happens in isolation where you may share screen shots with friends, asking for their opinion,” he added.

With Ping, users can chat with friends in their phonebook in a WhatsApp-like chat window and share product details directly from the Flipkart’s mobile app. The product took 4-5 months to develop. Currently in beta stage, Ping will be available through an invite only model in the beginning.

Press Trust of India

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No more Flipkart on the Desktop; will go app-only from September

After its online fashion store Myntra, Flipkart is all set to go app-only starting this September.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, a report by Times Of India, claims that the company’s chief product officer Punit Soni addressed a town hall meeting last week and announced Flipkart will operate only as a mobile app from September.

We tried reaching out to Flipkart, and the e-commerce site neither denied nor confirmed the move. A spokesperson responded stating, “India is gradually transitioning from a mobile first to a mobile only country. At Flipkart, we have been following a mobile first approach and 70-75% of our total traffic is already coming from our mobile app. We are constantly experimenting with various aspects of our service to create the best shopping experience for our users on our app. Meanwhile, we continue to offer both desktop as well as mobile option for our customers”

It was just two months ago that Myntra hit headlines with its app-only platform. Flipkart-owned fashion store had said that 95 percent of Internet traffic comes through mobile and 70 percent sales are generated through smartphones. This was speculated to be the possible motive as to why it ventured completely into smartphones. However, it did raise many questions such as does cutting off all desktop operations and moving into an app-only format make sense? The move received mixed reactions.

The growing need for smartphones is bound to drive online shopping in the future, but how ‘far distant future’ is still unclear. For many, it seemed like an abrupt shift rather than a gradual one as Indian audiences aren’t absolutely ready to completely abandon shopping from their PCs. Restricting users to the app could have its disadvantages.

However, looks like, the strategy seems to be working and the high penetration of Internet-enabled smartphones has led to enough traction in purchases through mobile devices. This may have assured Flipkart that it’s moving in the right direction by going app-only.

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