Flipkart moves fast

Several months ago, when Prabhu Kumar could not find a book he wanted in bookstores here, he found it online at Amazon.com for $10. But he had to pay more than $9 in fees to have Amazon ship it to him.

Kumar, a software programmer, said he would not be doing that again. He now shops on India's answer to Amazon - FlipKart.com - which delivers books, phones and other items in as little as 24 hours at no extra cost. Kumar doesn't have to pay FlipKart a single rupee until a courier bearing his books arrives at his door. He can then hand over cash or a credit card.

"I think it perfectly fits the Indian mentality," Kumar.

While dozens of electronic commerce firms have recently sprung up to capitalize on India's growing Internet use, they have a problem. Indians are not yet comfortable with shopping on the Web. Many of them remain unwilling to use credit cards online. So the Indian retailers have gone to great lengths to gain customers. Customers may pay in cash on delivery, and the company fields delivery squads to ensure shipments get to customers quickly.

Full report here Economic Times

Flipkart tries to outdo Amazon

When they were starting out, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal would 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 two 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.

“We were doing everything ourselves for the first four to five months, from packing to shipping,” Sachin Bansal, the 30-year-old chief executive of the company they called “Flipkart”, recalled of the six months before they moved into their first office. “Because our volumes were very low, our courier partners would sometimes refuse to pick up items from our apartment.”

“So we used to get on a motorbike, hold the shipment in our hands and personally deliver them to our Bangalore clients,” he said.

In those rocky first days, Sachin Bansal said, their suppliers, seeing two youngsters who had quit stable employment with Amazon, the world’s top online retailer, to go it alone, would counsel them to get proper jobs. The two men have since been cheered at home as poster boys for entrepreneurial India, establishing their company, Flipkart, as a leader in the fledgling Indian e-commerce market.

Full report here Deccan Herald

"Trust more important than lower prices"

E-commerce or online shopping is expected to grow by 47% this year. A whole bunch of websites have been increasing marketing spends and most of it is visible in some high frequency TV advertisements.
One of the leading companies in this pace is Flipkart. The co-founders and chief executive officer Sachin Bansal joins from the headquarters of the company in Bengaluru to talk more about online shopping and Flipkart. Here is the edited transcript of his interview. Also watch the accompanying videos.

What has been propelling this huge surge in online shopping? What has changed in the environment resulting in this spurt?
Customer trust has become much better in the whole medium. E-Commerce in the last decade has been suffering from a lack of customer, which has changed now. More and more e-commerce players with better services, better product selection and better prices are driving the market.

Low prices of the books category are one of the key attractions for people on Flipkart. Are low prices not the biggest driver for Flipkart’s sales?
Low prices are secondary to trust. If the consumers trust in your service is low, low prices will not help you much. We did a lot of experiment with prices earlier on when we started.
Most of the experiments and research showed that the first hurdle for consumers was trust and after that, the consumer thinks about prices or selection.
We are giving out three messages to our customers right now – one, helping with any problem related to the products; two, willing for a replacement and promising cash on delivery and card on delivery for customers; and third, providing customers with original product and a warranty.
Here, customers don’t have to pay upfront and then worry about the product not being delivered. When we combine all these factors, we see a very smooth shopping experience online as well as offline. All these factors would lead to growth for the company.

Full interview here Moneycontrol

NEA keen on Flipkart's $150-mn funding

NEA, the US-based venture capital major with $11 billion in committed capital, is understood to have shown keen interest to fund Bangalore-based Flipkart, an online retailer of books and lifestyle accessories such as mobile phones, consumer electronics, music, games among others.

According to investment bankers in the know, Flipkart is understood to be in discussions with a few global private equity and venture capital firms to raise about $150 million shortly. General Atlantic Partners is reportedly among the front runners to invest in Flipkart. Investment bankers detail that NEA will invest $40-$50 million and the rest will be from another PE major which has the bandwidth to write cheques to the tune of $100 million in one deal.

If this fresh fund-raising fructifies, it will be Flipkart’s fourth round of funding since starting in 2007.
The company had earlier raised a total of $30 million in two tranches from Tiger Global — $20 million earlier this year and $10 million during 2009. Prior to this, it had raised early stage VC from Accel Partners. The management of NEA and Flipkart could not be reached for their comments.

Founded in 2007 by two IIT graduates — Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal — Flipkart cracked the Top 100 Indian sites and was credited for being India’s largest online bookseller with over 10 million titles on offer catering to over a million customers.

Full report here Business Standard

Reading roots

Bookganga.com aims to revive sales of Indian regional literature and curb piracy of e-books

It was at a preview of Apple’s iPad that US-based IT entrepreneur Mandar Joglekar realised that with the increasing popularity of e-reading across the globe, there was still scope to revive Indian literature. “While preparing a presentation for American Newspaper Association on the next generation’s reading habits, I found it compelling that the older newspapers there were heading towards bankruptcy due to decreasing circulation and ad revenues. There is little doubt that India will soon follow suit and, using this as an advantage, I thought it is time to launch an initiative that will bring dying Indian literature to its patrons,” he explains.

So, on August 30, Joglekar — who runs multiple internet ventures for the NRI audience, like citizen journalism website globalmarathi.com and social networking initiative myvishwa.com — launched bookganga.com. This, Joglekar hopes, will become the amazon.com for Indian literature soon. The website already has on sale close to 7,000 titles across English, Hindi, Marathi and Sanskrit in the e-book as well as hard copy format. The website, within three weeks, is already attending to more than 150 orders from within India and many others from countries like Australia, Peru and the US.

Full report here Indian Express

Bookworm hub

“Nobody should ever walk out of a book store empty-handed.” This and several other aphorisms fill up the ‘About Us’ section of Literaturemachine.com. The new Kerala-based outfit, a Web book store, was set up by a group of friends who were unhappy with the kind of books in popular book stores. They set up the Web store with a database of around 22 million imported books.

It has 44 categories— everything from philosophy to gardening. Apart from classics and pop culture must-haves, there are eclectic offerings such as ‘10 Bad Dates with de Niro’ (Overlook Press) and ‘A Book of Scoundrels’ (Tutis Digital Pub). The selection is the website’s strong point since there is no real cost advantage over existing Web stores such as Flipkart.com.

Full report here Mint

JustBooks upgrades library inventory management system using RFID

India-based library chain JustBooks is using RFID technology to automate its inventory management processes. JustBooks’ more than 160,000 library items are all tagged with UPM Raflatac ShortDipole RFID tags converted into custom book labels by India’s systems integrator Great Eastern Impex.

JustBooks embeds RFID tags into each member card and every library item. Customers use the membership card to log into an unmanned touch screen kiosk equipped with library management software and readers from ThingMagic. The kiosk can be used to issue and return books placed on a designated tray area.

The library management software is mapped according to the library’s layout and linked with inventory data and the back-end. Using additional equipment, the library staff can check the correct location of any item that may have been misplaced and put it back in its original location.

Full report here RFID

Setting up flipkart.com

Preface
Browse, click and wait. Online book-shopping should really be a breeze. But all too often, in India, the wait turns endless, and frustration mounts. There could be disappointment in store at various levels. Either the book is out of stock, or the book arrives late, or sometimes never arrives. It is the freedom from this frustration, and the unfailing efficiency of its service that has contributed to making Flipkart.com the most popular Web site to buy books in India. At a recent e-commerce event organised by VC Cirlce in Bangalore, not a session went by without a reference to Flipkart. One panelist remarked that if Flipkart had not launched in 2007 and if makemytrip had not gone for an IPO, we would not even be talking about e-commerce in India today.

Characters
Sachin and Binny Bansal (not related to each other, but friends since their school days), engineers, book lovers, travel buffs and founders of Flipkart.com

Chapter 1
– The Beginning –
Sometime in 2006, Sachin and Binny Bansal found themselves at the Bangalore centre of Amazon.com. The two young engineers were drawn into the entrepreneurial, technology-obsessed and metric-driven culture of the firm that swore to be the earth’s most customer centric company. There were stories of how Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, would visit the warehouses and get his hands dirty, never failing to get a valuable insight or two in the process.

And of course, there was the engineer’s focus on efficiency — the urge to automate and measure in order to make better decisions. Sachin and Binny Bansal could get a definite sense of what it takes to succeed in e-commerce: A relentless focus on the back-end. This insight eventually helped them when they set upon their entrepreneurial journey.

Full report here Forbes

Words’ worth

Will online book stores be the nemesis of their brick-and-mortar cousins?

Middle school is probably the worst place for a nerd to be in. It's what a cocktail party is to a good K-serial bahu. What McDonalds is to a card-holding communist. And right at the heart of the whirlwind of adolescent hormones, stood the very own panic room. A soberly lit room that smells of paper and words, that indulges a spine to be colourful, and not necessarily uptight. The only place where a nerd society I knew very well, would feel cooler than the middle-school fest queen. Bookstores, have stood for several such slam-book-perfect stories, before an Amazon gatecrashed into their quiet fairytale. And took not long to prove that we were only to willing to have our books delivered at our doorstep.

When Barnes and Noble announced a sell-off, they only made a formal validation of the guilt that we have been living with for some time now. “When you have something definite in mind, buying a book from an online portal is only more convenient. Also, while a brick and mortar bookstore can house not more than 50,000 titles at a time, an online store usually stocks 3-4 million titles. Also discounts offered by these portals are more,” says Sachin Bansal, CEO of Flipkart.com, India's answer to Amazon. Ritam Haldar, a media professional, would agree. “What matters is the book. And we can even browse the latest titles on these portals. And the time you take to buy a book on these portals is what you take to update your Facebook status,” says Haldar, emphasizing the demands of a Twitter-happy generation.

Full report here Indian Express

Online bookstore launched in Delhi

Bibliophiles will have it easy with an online bookstore being launched in Delhi on August 12,Thursday.

Pearson Education India launched a bookstore through its online retail partner, VRV Bookshop.

Talking about the need for online bookshops, Sangeeta Mehra, COO of VRV Bookshop, said: 'With internet penetration growing, Indian online retail is increasing at an astounding rate. Books remain one of the highest purchased items online.'

The online bookstore will focus on students and faculty. It will have school, higher education, institutional, professional as well as competitive exam segments apart from the fiction and non-fiction books.

Vivek Govil, CEO of Pearson Education India, said: 'With our ever growing catalogue, the portal will make even hard-to-find books accessible to students and faculty, anywhere in India.'

Full report here Sify

Bookstores opening a new chapter on survival

This is an epilogue that is being rewritten. Indian bookstores are changing the narrative of selling books by trying new and innovative ways to counter the threat posed by the internet age that has such scalps as the iconic US bookseller Barnes & Noble on the block.

One of the main challenges that face bookstores these days is online ordering of books, through websites that offer discounts of anywhere between 10-40%.

Big Indian book retail chains like Crossword, Apeejay Oxford Bookstores and Starmark are moving beyond the bookends and taking initiatives to transform the in-store experience that is not just about reading. Some are even making inroads into cyberspace.

“We are contemplating getting into the online business. For this, we are looking to buy an online book site,” says Gautam Jatia, Starmark CEO.

Full report here Economic Times

Indian book retail industry goes online; book e-tailing to take off

According to a Technopack Advisors report of 2008, the Indian book market is valued at around $2.6 billion and less than one percent of India's $2 billion book industry comes from the online segment. Hence, the internet has a good potential for India's book retail industry.

On the releasing day of Dan Brown's novel The Lost Symbol, in September 2009, Flipkart.com, an Indian online book retailer, sold over 2,000 copies. According to Sachin Bansal, Co-Founder and CEO of Flipkart, the company did well because its main focus was to meet consumer expectations.

Flipkart, which was started in 2007 with initial costs of $9,000 and 50,000 titles, made over $4 million in revenue last year. Earlier this year, it raised $8-10 million from New York-based venture capital fund Tiger Global Management.

Flipkart isn't the only player in India's online bookstore arena who is hopeful in this regard. Infibeam, a Gujarat-based online book retailer, has also recorded $20 million revenue target for the year. The list also includes Firstandsecond, Librarywala and Tradusbooks among others who are hopeful of getting a foothold in the market.

Full report here Silicon India

The uber-cool book store is here

The new Landmark is big and attractive, but it does not compromise on the store’s eclectic edge

You go to Landmark when you know it’s just about time for the new Alice Sebold to arrive in India or when, after reading the Lounge column Cult Fiction, you want to get your hands on AbsoluteWatchmen. No book store in Mumbai—perhaps even in India—can match Landmark’s eclectic collection of literary fiction and graphic novels. It has been the zany, cool intellectual’s destination.

But the store in Andheri is also a mini retail paradise—the latest Hidesign bag as easily visible to shoppers as the new Yann Martel or David Mitchell cover. You have to negotiate screaming children and heavy plastic bags hanging from tired hands to make your way to the books section of the store in order to unearth the best. Like most big book-store chains across the world, Landmark believes a family has different kinds of shoppers and the bibliophile (nerd) will only shop at Landmark if the entire family gets to shop there too.

At the new Landmark in Palladium, Phoenix Mills, in central Mumbai, there is enough space and shelf for all kinds. The 42,000 sq. ft store, sprawled across the basement of Palladium, stocks at least 5% more in all categories than the other store in Mumbai—and all the 14 other stand-alone outlets in India.

Full report here Mint

Indiaplaza launches children's book week

Indiaplaza, India's largest online retail destination, has launched Children's book week. As part of the promotions, all children's books will be hugely discounted to foster reading habit at a young age.

Indiaplaza, India's largest online bookstore has launched children's book week promotions. The pioneering company has rightly lent spotlight to the under served category of Children's books. - www.indiaplaza.in/summer-reading-for-kids/

As part of the promotions children's books will be hugely discounted to foster reading habit at a young age. Indiaplaza has the largest range children's books for toddlers, young readers and teens. There will be a minimum discount on all books ranging from classics for kids, activity books, comics,science books,teen fiction and collections.

The raison de etre of the promotions is to foster reading habit among kids. As kids enjoy reading from a young age, they’ll develop a love of books from the beginning. A trait, that will help them achieve great heights in academics and foster well-rounded thinking.

Full report here Pr Inside

A winning chapter

Entrepreneurs Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal have a bestseller on their hands with their online book store, says Aarti Dua

It’s been described as one of the country’s hottest start-ups, and even called India’s Amazon. Indeed, if you’ve searched for any India-related book online, chances are that you’ve already been given cyber- directions to Flipkart.com. For, in just over two years since it launched online, Flipkart has emerged as one of India’s leading online booksellers.

Undoubtedly, IIT-Delhi classmates and Flipkart’s co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal — they aren’t related — couldn’t have written a better preface. And they’re confident they’ve got a bestseller on their hands. Flipkart has already grabbed market share from e-commerce veterans like rediff.com in the books category, and even edged out early Amazon wannabes like firstandsecond.com.

This is only the opening chapter. The founders recently raised funding from Accel India, the Indian arm of Accel Ventures, which has funded start-ups like Facebook. Now they’re busy scaling up. They plan to expand their booklist, open more distribution centres and, yes, go beyond books to become a full e-commerce play too.

Full report here Telegraph

Startups turning a new page, online

Reading is still alive and kicking but the way people buy books is changing for sure. Like most other things, people want to buy their books too, but online. Some enterprising entrepreneurs have spotted this opportunity and are bridging the gap, setting up online book stores and discussion forums, connecting discerning readers.

So now we have librarywala.com, weRead, Flipkart, Shelfari and Indiaplaza, all selling books online or offering a forum to discuss and compare books.

After working for a few years with Amazon, Sachin Bansal started Flipkart.com, an online bookstore which is doing brisk sales. He aims to reach Rs 25 crore in sales by March this year in just over a year of operations. “The main reason is that it is easier to start online, and you can start it from anywhere,” says Bansal. It was a similar story with weRead, called iRead before being bought by Lulu.com.

Full report here Economic Times

Flipkart showcases services at WBF

Flipkart Online Services Pvt. Ltd., a new online book selling portal, showcased its portal and its unique selling prepositions to the book lovers at the World Book Fair.

Flipkart.com with more than 6 million titles available on its portal not only makes a wide variety of books accessible but also provides fast and efficient services to its customers. In order to become the largest e-commerce website in India in coming years, the company gives a world class online buying experience to its customers, which reflects in the experiences shared by customers on different platforms and the increasing popularity.

Commenting on the occasion, Binny Bansal, Co-founder of Flipkart.com said, "This platform attracts book lovers from all over India which gives us a great opportunity to showcase our portal and talk about our most admired services. In the age of internet, where people prefer to shop online, book lovers are also shifting to the online platforms to buy books which not only make them accessible to the wide variety of books at a click but also make the purchase less cumbersome. The online book buying space is growing at about 20-30% per month in India and we are the leading website in the online book buying space with more than 6 million visitors every month. With more focused and planned approach Flipkart.com has already captured two-third market share in India. The company plans to penetrate the market further over the next fiscal and plans to launch its "Cash on Delivery" service by March 2010 and expand the titles available at the portal to over 10 million by the year end."

He added, "With a mission to become the largest e-commerce website in India and a vision to provide Indians the best online shopping experience, Flipkart.com today with a workforce strength of about 200 employees has been able to capture a major share in the online selling world just with its books that many other players with various product offerings have not yet been able to capture. The company registered a total sale of Rs. 40 million in 2008-09 and projects a sale of Rs. 250-300 million by this fiscal end with a growth rate of about 25% per month."

Flipkart.com boasts of a leisurely browsing experience which is simple, convenient and customer friendly yet offers quality services like safe and fast payment facilities and the quickest delivery service in the country by any web portal.