Ecommerce Behemoth Flipkart To Bolster ‘Relatable Indian Brands’

As PM Narendra Modi has shifted the campaign from ‘Positive India’ to ‘Progressive India’, ecommerce behemoth Flipkart is also set to unveil a new brand called ‘Naye India Ke Saath’ to focus on its ‘Progressive India’ initiatives.

The ‘Progressive India’ initiative aims to create a more ‘relatable Indian brands’, which will further help attract another 100 Mn customers, reports ET.

As per the report, relatable Indian brand currently contributes 15% of the overall gross merchandise volume (GMV). The Progressive India initiative focusses on bringing more monthly active users from Tier II and Tier III markets.

An email sent to Flipkart team did not elicit any response till the time of publication.

While rival Amazon India, was recently seen prioritising Indian sentiments in its ad campaigns, being a homegrown company, Flipkart aims to bank on being swadeshi in this regard.

The Swadeshi raga is not new for the users. Banking on Swadeshi campaigns, Yogacharya Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved, in a short span of the last few years, has already become one of the largest FMCG companies in India.

Earlier, Inc42 had also reported that the US-headquartered retail giant Walmart is looking to acquire a big stake in Flipkart. If the deal goes through, it would catapult Flipkart’s valuation to $20 Bn from its current valuation of $11.6 Bn.

According to Shoumyan Biswas, VP of Marketing at Flipkart, the company will come up with several solutions in the next 6-18 months to add 100 Mn more customers. “For example, only 35 Mn people have credit cards, so we want to create credit options for the remaining population that doesn’t have credit cards,” he added.

Meanwhile, despite heavy losses and ongoing litigation with the taxation department, Flipkart Group has reported a rise in its revenues by nearly a third on Y-o-Y basis for the FY 2016-17.

The ecommerce giant has reportedly registered a 29% Y-o-Y increase in its revenue, at a staggering amount of $3.09 Bn (INR 19,854 Cr) for the financial year which ended in March 2017. However, Flipkart continued to record high losses, which reached $1.3 Bn (INR 8,771 Cr) and translates to an increase of 68% from a loss of $814 Mn (INR 5,223 Cr) registered in FY16.

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