Flipkart to engage local celebrities for penetration in non-metros

Company did a regional market study for the first time and kick started its celebrity campaign from Punjab

Flipkart, the e-retailer with the largest market share in India, plans to expand its footprint in the different regions of the country by aggressive marketing and engaging local celebrities in different locations. The company has picked up seven states Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telengana in the first phase of strengthening its presence in urban non-metro towns.

Talking to Business Standard, Adarsh K Menon, Vice President Business Development of Flipkart said that the proliferation of smart phone users in the last few months has triggered an exponential growth of app based traffic of on line orders and it is coming from the smaller centers.

Punjab has been the trend setter state as 80% of the business is being sourced from mobile app as compared to 75% in pan India. The state has clocked 8% month on month growth in customer base in the last seven months and Chandigarh has registered a 12% growth in the same period. With over 2 lakh regular customers, Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Jalandhar have emerged as top performing cities in Punjab. The company projects Punjab to provide a big leap in business and has tied up with the home grown celebrity Daljit Dosanjh, a well-known Punjabi actor and singer.

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Ludhiana is an important seller hub for the company and it a seller base of 14,000 in Punjab.

He told that Flipkart did a regional market study for the first time and kick started its celebrity campaign from Punjab. This would be replicated in other states to get a quicker, faster reach, he added. The tie-up with a local celebrities in different regions would help to connect the young buyers who use the mobile apps, the most.

Flipkart would expand in width and breadth in new categories. He refused to give exact numbers but the company would beef up its manpower by hiring more. Flipkart is the largest e-commerce player with about 44% market share in India.