Flipkart bets on exclusive smartphone deals, cashbacks to fight competition

Turns its attention towards higher-priced phones to improve margins

India’s largest e-commerce firm Flipkart is betting big on exclusive smartphone deals that would help it double sales growth in the smartphone category in the next fiscal.

According to a report in Livemint, Flipkart’s new chief Kalyan Krishnamurthy has been pushing his top executives to score exclusive smartphone deals, which will help the company to maintain its lead in Indian e-commerce market.

In the e-commerce market, Flipkart has been facing fierce competition from Amazon India. After losing its market to Amazon, Flipkart upped the ante and sold record smartphones, which accounted for more than half of Flipkart’s sales. The smartphone category, therefore, became the key to the company’s revival last year as it battled competition from Amazon.

Since Krishnamurthy returned to Flipkart, the online e-commerce giant has inked crucial partnerships with top brands such as Samsung and Apple. Recently, Flipkart  also tied up with other top smartphone makers such as Oppo, Xiaomi, Lenovo, Motorola and LeEco.

“Once Kalyan returned, we’ve again started focusing on exclusives. The focus on exclusives was always there, it’s just that the aggression has increased now,” said Ayyappan R., a director at Flipkart.

Such exclusive partnerships along with attractive financing options and product exchange schemes have led to sharp hike in monthly sales at Flipkart over the past four months, said company executives who requested anonymity.

In Indian e-commerce, Flipkart is seen as the leader that paved the way for smartphones to become the biggest growth driver for online retailers as it wooed customers in 2013-14 with high-quality smartphone models from top manufacturers such as Xiaomi and Motorola at low prices.

With the smartphone industry showing signs of saturation, Flipkart is turning its attention towards higher-priced phones to improve margins and keep up its domination in the category.

Recently, Flipkart announced three-day electronic sale wherein the e-commerce retailer offered discount up to 90% on selected electronic products and an additional discount of 10% on using SBI cards.

Here are the deals that Flipkart offered during electronic sale:

Currently, the e-commerce giant is running ‘Samsung Mobile Fest’ and is offering heavy discounts, exchange benefits and No Cost EMI options. The Samsung Galaxy On Nxt is retailing at Rs 15,900, down from 18,490 with an exchange offer of up to Rs 15,000 off on exchange and No Cost EMI starting at Rs 1,767 per month.

Samsung A9 Pro, which is a premium smartphone, is currently retailing at Rs 26,900, down from Rs 32,490.  There is an exchange offer of up to Rs 16,000 off on exchange and No Cost EMI starting at Rs 2,242 per month.

For iPhone enthusiasts, Flipkart is giving exciting offers on the latest iPhone 7 and 7 plus. The iPhone 7 base model with 32 GB storage is available for as low as Rs 37,000 after exchange offers. The premium iPhone 7 Plus base model with 32 GB storage is currently retailing at Rs 48,400 post exchange offers.