Perfect Homes sees 550% growth of private labels this season: Flipkart

Walmart-owned online marketplace Flipkart said on Thursday its private label Perfect Homes, which saw a 550 per cent growth in this year’s festive season marathon sales, was the biggest furniture brand in the country. 

The company claims its furniture label has clocked more sales than combined sales of the next three furniture brands in the country. “With over 17 private brands products selling every minute this festive sale, Flipkart’s private brands portfolio grew by 550 per cent over the 2017 season,” said Adarsh Menon, vice-president, PL and Electronics, Flipkart. 

The firm, run and managed by Flipkart Chief Executive Officer Kalyan Krishnamurthy, is bullish of the growth of its six private labels comprising 160-plus categories and is planning to concentrate more on sales of its private label brands in 2019.

The company plans to bring out more products in under the six brands next year. It has witnessed a major traction for its private label brands in tier-II, tier-III and the rest of India markets. With the products being almost 20 per cent cheaper than the competition and the company improving its after-sales services, Flipkart has managed to increase sales on the back of price sensitive customers. 

“The private labels from Flipkart are based on this understanding of customer preferences, need gaps and quality issues, so that every product fulfils the needs more effectively and efficiently. The products on an average are aimed to be 20 per cent cheaper than the market. This price difference is driven due to deep customer understand and the benefit is passed on to the customer,” Menon added. 

The company is hoping for the next level of growth to come from its furniture, sports accessories and equipments and toys and baby care categories, where it is planning a major expansion. 

“For us, focus categories will be large appliances, sports and fitness, home, diapers, toys, furniture, FMCG – food and beverage as well as personal care. Furniture as a category has done extremely well for us. We can now say we are the biggest player in a mostly unorganised segment,” said Menon. 

According to Flipkart, private label contribution in participating verticals doubled from the last year to 13 per cent. The company believes it would significantly increase next year as it brings in more products in various categories. 

The company, since the exit of its two founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, has changed its game plan. In the next five months, Flipkart plans to expand its grocery services pan India. While it would not be selling perishables such as fresh produce and meats, by end of next year a cold chain supply chain would be in place to expand that service. 

“In grocery, we have seen spectacular adoption and are now focused on ramping it up in Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune, after Bengaluru. The success has been possible because of our problem-solving approach, by which we recognised and set up an independent supply chain for grocery. We remain highly committed to ramping up grocery, which we believe will be a sticky proposition for customers. With Walmart as a partner, we believe we can leverage specific learning in grocery and supply chain,” the company had said earlier.

Private labels

Flipkart Smart Buy: 

Mobile phone accessories, home and furnishing, sports goods

MarQ: Television, washing machines, microwave and other electronics

Perfect Homes: Furniture

Miss & Chief: Toys and babycare products

Billion: Mobile phones, white goods

Supermart: FMCG