Flipkart logo |
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| Industry | Online Retail |
|---|---|
| Founded | Bangalore, Karnataka, India (September 2007) |
| Headquarters | Bangalore, Karnataka, India |
| Number of locations | 7 warehouses, offices and delivery centers (2011)[1] |
| Area served | India |
| Key people | Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal |
| Revenue | 75 Crore (FY 2010-11)[2] |
| Employees | 4600+ (December 2011)[1] |
| Subsidiaries | WeRead, Mime360, |
| Website | http://www.flipkart.com |
Flipkart is among India’s largest online retailers. It is an electronic commerce company head-quartered in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Established in 2007 by Sachin and Binny Bansal. Flipkart started as an online bookstore, but has since diversified into media, consumer electronics, computers, healthcare and home appliances.
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Flipkart was established in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (not related), both alumni of Indian Institute of Technology Delhi who worked for Amazon.com before quitting and founding their own company. Initially they used word of mouth to popularise their company. A few months later, the company sold its first book on flipkart.com - John Woods' Leaving Microsoft to Change the World.[3] Today, as per Alexa traffic rankings, Flipkart is amongst the top 30 Indian sites and has been credited for being India's largest online bookseller[3] with over 11 million titles on offer. Flipkart broke even in March 2010 and claims to have had at least 0% growth every quarter since its founding. The store started with selling books and in 2010 branched out to selling CDs, DVDs, Mobile phones & Accessories, Cameras, Computers,Pens & Office supplies, other electronic items i.e Home appliances, Kitchen appliances, Personal care, Health care & many more electronic gadgets. [4] As of today, Flipkart employs over 4672 people.[5]
Initially funded by the Bansal themselves with 4 Lakh,[3][6] Flipkart has since then raised two rounds of funding from venture capital funds Accel India (in 2009)[7] and Tiger Global Management (up to the tune of US$20 million) (in 2010).[8][9][10] i
Flipkart's reported sales were 4 Crores (40 Million) in FY 2008-09,[14][15] 20 Crores in FY 2009-10[16] and 75 Crores for FY 2010-11.[2] In this FY 2011-12 Flipkart is set to cross the 500 Crores ($100 million) mark as Internet usage in the country increases and people get accustomed to making purchases online.[17] On average, Flipkart sells nearly 20 products per minute[18] and is aiming at generating a revenue of 5000 Crores ($1 billion ) by 2015.[19]
The company's headquarters is located in Bangalore's Koramangala neighbourhood. Flipkart has offices, warehouses and customer service centers across India. Warehouses are located in the following cities, often near airports.
Flipkart started with selling books. In 2010 they added to their catalogue media (including music, movies and games) and mobile phones & accessories.
In 2011 product launches included Cameras, computers, pens & office supplies, computer accessories, home and kitchen appliances, personal care, health care, gaming consoles, audio players and televisions.
In November 2011, Flipkart launched a new Electronic Wallet[20] feature that allows shoppers to purchase credit to their Flipkart account using credit or debit cards, and can subsequently be utilized to make purchases on the site, as and when required.