Flipkart grows by listening to customers

Name of Business: Flipkart.com

Website URL: http://www.flipkart.com/

Industry: ecommerce

Target Audience: Online shoppers, people who shop for entertainment online (books, movies, music, games, etc)

Category of Business

Flipkart.com aims mostly at people who would like to buy books online in India. What the company calls the “steroids” for its website are low prices, free shipping and an intuitive interface that makes it very convenient to search for books. The site has a young and trendy look and feel. Flipkart.com was launched by a passionate group of professionals who aimed at giving Indians a good online shopping experience and excellent customer service. Technological initiatives were focused on making the search for books faster and more convenient.

Marketing Efforts

In its social media initiatives, Flipkart.com aims at facilitating an easier conversation channel for customers and users. Conversations are to the point and are targeted at specific issues, thoughts and ideas.

Flipkart.com began activities to make its presence felt on Facebook and Twitter about a year ago. The company has also used LinkedIn to connect with people. The popularity of the site has grown through recommendations...people recommending the site to their family, friends and co-workers. And what better platform than social media to leverage ‘word-of-mouth’! Flipkart.com recognized that using social media is about being human. The people who manage their channels infuse Flipkart's culture and personality in what they do or say in tandem with their own personality.

“Social Media have feedback mechanism built into them, which needless to say benefits both the customer and the brand,” says Mr. Sachin Bansal, CEO and Co-founder of Flipkart.com. “What's key is to listen to what is being said about you (as opposed to hear), and for that matter being said directly to you. Users will be brutally honest if you give them an opportunity. The onus then lies solely upon you and your brand, about what you do with the feedback. That's where we've seen tremendous benefit.”

“Transparency and Honesty is the key. If you value these traits as an organization, Social Media will help amplify it,” adds Mr. Bansal.

Result of Efforts

Flipkart.com has a strong presence on Facebook, with a staggering number of fans. The company has more than 690,000 fans and has used easy, interesting conversations to engage them. Flipkart.com has 2,877 followers on twitter. Flipkart.com’s Alexa global ranking is 2,101, while its India ranking is 164.

Marketing Investment

The investment in social media has been in terms of time and effort. Almost everyone at Flipkart monitors social platforms.