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India's Flipkart Has an Amazon Problem

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Re: India's Flipkart Has an Amazon Problem

#81

Post by Ankurkkhuran »

jdkanani wrote: post #38
nnain wrote: post #25

Too much negative commentary. Flipkart also did something interesting that fueled their early growth - they offered 'Cash on Delivery' model, cause many people in India don't use Credit/Debit cards for shopping! I never had a bad buying experience with them, but then my shopping has been limited. Must say though that Amazon's recommendation engine and technical prowess in general is superior. I imagine so are Amazon'…

You underestimated the power of Amazon here - it's not technical prowess or recommendation engine. The war was never about technical prowess. It's Amazon's customer service which pulling Flipkart/Snapdeal down to the ground and beating them hard.

This is the correct answer. It is not discount or catalogue that is making Flipkart bleed, it is the customer service provided by their competitior. Amazon commitment to keeping customers happy is praise worthy. Many people do not buy very costly items from flipkart (namely phones, TVs, etc) because they are not really sure whether the return policy will hold and when will they get refund where as on the other hand, faith in Amazon is unshaken and people generally prefer it's platform for buying. Less I talk about Snapdeal, better it is. Snapdeal is not going to survive this war, Flipkart might. Almost nobody I know buys from Snapdeal because of their subpar customer service, though I agree that the sample set is not very large here.

Re: India's Flipkart Has an Amazon Problem

#82

Post by Ankurkkhuran »

piyush_soni wrote: post #36
pm90 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it typical of Indian businesses? I feel like this is overgeneralizing that aspect. I can see what you mean in this specific instance though. I wonder if its just lack of experience in transitions from a small company to a bigger one in the India startup environment.

It is kind of the general business attitude here, unfortunately.

I disagree. That is over generalization.

Re: India's Flipkart Has an Amazon Problem

#83

Post by [deleted] »

piyush_soni wrote: post #36
pm90 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it typical of Indian businesses? I feel like this is overgeneralizing that aspect. I can see what you mean in this specific instance though. I wonder if its just lack of experience in transitions from a small company to a bigger one in the India startup environment.

It is kind of the general business attitude here, unfortunately.

[deleted]

Re: India's Flipkart Has an Amazon Problem

#84

Post by Ankurkkhuran »

pjc50 wrote: post #54
seibelj wrote: post #7

Amazon has earned my trust in every serious interaction I've had with them (live in USA and have prime subscription). Package never arrived? Reimbursed. Next day shipping and it took 2 days? Reimbursed. "New" book from reseller is clearly marked up with underlines and notes? Free book, no need to ship it back. The trust I have with this company is the reason why I order from them so consistently, even if they are mor…

I wonder what the trust looks like in the other direction: if you can get free stuff by lying to customer service, what happens if that becomes popular in the customer base?

They are learning that very fast. See this : http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-techno... . People were abusing their customer service and they killed the goose. Now the whole return for mobile phones also factors in your buying history and is evaluated on case by case basis.

Re: India's Flipkart Has an Amazon Problem

#85

Post by piyush_soni »

Ankurkkhuran wrote: post #82
piyush_soni wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is kind of the general business attitude here, unfortunately.

I disagree. That is over generalization.

No, it's just generalization, and that's why I said general business attitude.

Re: India's Flipkart Has an Amazon Problem

#86

Post by thisisit »

thewhitetulip wrote: post #19
anupshinde wrote: post #15

I've used both Flipkart and Amazon(India) sites. 1. For me, Flipkart's introduction was only due to the huge discounted prices. Also it was new, better and trusted experience compared to Ebay(India). And Amazon came late in the game. Mentally I associate Flipkart with huge Discounts (and Mi phones). And those discounts don't exist any more. 2. Amazon.in is just a great user experience. Flipkart.com still feels like a…

I have not bought anything from Flipkart since more than one year. The company was doomed from the start, I had the chance to see it form their interview process. It is so broken that I felt it outrageous that it was the _hottest_ startup in India. Amazon is awesome, because it provides low prices + quality service. It isn't just "discount retailing" Flipkart built its reputation on motorola phones because Moto was e…

I would put the whole Indian business thing in a different way. India is a pretty difficult market. Its not that the companies don't care about the customers rather things get complicated too quickly.

Amazon had to cutback on its returns and refunds policy on mobile phones back in Feb/March. Comparatively I can still get refunds on Amazon US.

Logistics is also a nightmare in India which causes a lot of delays.

Re: India's Flipkart Has an Amazon Problem

#87

Post by parthdesai »

vthallam wrote: post #69
parthdesai wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just checked Flipkart's website and it's not even responsive. Horizontal scroll appears at width of 1284 pixel. I think this in 2016 is just insane.

Not sure what are you looking at. They do have a great mobile website and i could see it.

Hey i didn't check on mobile, but i checked on desktop and tried minimising my browser and it isn't even a bit responsive. Used Chrome on linux to be specific.

Re: India's Flipkart Has an Amazon Problem

#88

Post by vidarh »

endemic wrote: post #61
vidarh wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CoD has been offered by almost every postal service in the world. It used to be one of the main ways of paying for goods you ordered, and remained so well into the 80's or 90's in countries where credit card penetration remained low. The main limitation in most countries have been the pickup at the post office.

I made my first CoD payment (for an Amazon order) when I lived in Japan in 2004.

I'm not surprised. Remnants of the old postal payment methods have been persistent in many European countries too. I'm from Norway, and despite being born in '75, between CoD and post/bank giro's cheques got killed off early enough that prior to moving to the UK in 2000 I only ever have vague memories from my childhood of my parents paying with checks - it was unusual in the early 80's. In the UK I still need a check book for the occasional (now finally very rare) instance where someone insists of being paid that way (the UK in theory has a giro system; in practice it only sees use for some very limited usage areas)

Because these methods were so widespread and credit card penetration was low (due to strict consumer credit laws, very, very few credit cards were available well into the 80's, and debit cards were often just ATM cards without a card number), they carried over to many online shops too.

Re: India's Flipkart Has an Amazon Problem

#89

Post by troygoode »

kamaal wrote: post #62
denzil_correa wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Flipkart also did something interesting that fueled their early growth - they offered 'Cash on Delivery' model, cause many people in India don't use Credit/Debit cards for shopping! COD model was available way before Flipkart even existed. > To me Flipkart's weakness in strategic vision started showing up in dealing with the fashion segment The main weakness with Flipkart are some decisions like making Myntra app o…

I never understood buying clothes online. Its really not the same as ordering the 1.5L Prestige pressure cooker. Most Indians need to see the clothes, and may be even try them once for the right size. I'm extremely skeptical of buying any clothes or shoes unless I see them. The only thing people really buy online are stuff they already know about(like the 1.5L Pressure cooker) or throw away stuff.

If the clothes/shoes don't fit as expected, you just send it back...

Re: India's Flipkart Has an Amazon Problem

#90

Post by thewhitetulip »

thisisit wrote: post #86
thewhitetulip wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have not bought anything from Flipkart since more than one year. The company was doomed from the start, I had the chance to see it form their interview process. It is so broken that I felt it outrageous that it was the _hottest_ startup in India. Amazon is awesome, because it provides low prices + quality service. It isn't just "discount retailing" Flipkart built its reputation on motorola phones because Moto was e…

I would put the whole Indian business thing in a different way. India is a pretty difficult market. Its not that the companies don't care about the customers rather things get complicated too quickly. Amazon had to cutback on its returns and refunds policy on mobile phones back in Feb/March. Comparatively I can still get refunds on Amazon US. Logistics is also a nightmare in India which causes a lot of delays.

The thing is I don't care about delays, refunds or returns.

All I care is that I get a good service. Amazon sends more communication, if their product is delayed, the make sure that they send a SMS. Of course we don't expect everything to be delivered daily

Basically it is obvious since Amazon has been matured into a good product since the past 30yrs!

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