 "Flipkart, e-commerce")
Flipkart said it witnessed over 70 sellers becoming crorepatis and about 10,000 becoming lakhpatis during the first three days of the e-commerce firm’s Big Billion Days (BBD) festive sale.
Over 300,000 sellers --- of which about 60 per cent belonged to tier-2 and beyond cities --- enabled shopping in the first three days of the week-long BBD.
“This number doesn’t account for the total number of crorepati sellers during all six days (of BBD),” said Flipkart in a statement.
“The number of crorepati sellers went up by 1.5X in comparison to last year’s BBD sale,” it added.
The Walmart-owned firm categorises ‘crorepati’ as a seller who has done business worth Rs 1 core or more and ‘lakhpati’ as the one who has done business worth Rs 1 lakh. According to the firm, these sellers are continuing to grow rapidly and are scaling up their operations as Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift to e-commerce.
One among them is Hyderabad-based Chitra Vyas, who has an M-Tech degree in electronics. She has been a seller on Flipkart since 2016 and runs the business under the brand ‘Shopping Whopping.’ Vyas wanted to take up a corporate job but after completing her education, she found it difficult to find employment. She now is one of the highest performing sellers on Flipkart.
During the nationwide Covid-19-induced lockdown, Vyas anticipated that sales in the fashion category would be less. Based on the market trends and Flipkart’s insights, she understood that consumers were moving towards immunity-building and healthy products. She pivoted her offering on the platform to include dry fruits as part of her portfolio. As these items were part of the 'essential' products, Vyas was able to continue her business uninterrupted. She was able to pay her staff throughout the pandemic and was able to support her 20 member team. Her business has seen a huge growth in the six days of BBD and she is now preparing for the upcoming festive days.
In Rajkot, Meet Vij who had completed his 12th standard in 2019 and joined his family business right after. He proposed the idea of starting to venture into selling their products on Flipkart. While the family was initially reluctant to take the risk, the youngest businessman in the family was convinced that it was worth taking a risk. Vij joined Flipkart in November 2019 and started selling mobile accessories such as Bluetooth earphones, speakers, and headphones. Though it was a slow start, with 5-10 orders per day, his business picked up momentum in 2 months. It was during the lockdown when he realised the importance of e-commerce even more. He invested time to strengthen his online business called ‘U and I World.’
Talking about his first-ever BBD experience, Vij said the demand was beyond his expectations. He received support and guidance from various Flipkart officials. This included insights about keeping the stock ready and catering to the demand during BBD. Vij was able to sell 40,000 products during the festive sale and his business witnessed 5x growth. With work from home continuing in most parts of the country, Bluetooth earphones were the most sold items in his category during this period.
In Surat, Flipkart's top seller Satish Raghavbhai Patel had briefly worked with a bank and holds an M.A. in Sanskrit. He decided to help his father manage an offline business in household items. Post his father’s retirement, Patel joined Flipkart platform in December 2019. He began by selling household and kitchen appliances.
Patel runs the business as 'Humble Kart' on the platform and this year was his first BBD experience. He prepared in advance to meet the scale and expected demand. He received about 6,700 orders per day and his team worked from 6 am to 11 pm to support this surge. He also stocked his products in Flipkart’s warehouses to ensure faster delivery. Patel adopted the strategy of listing new products according to the changing consumer demand. These included kid’s clothing and furniture during the period apart from household items. Patel was able to earn a revenue of 1 crore during the 6 days of BBD. With Flipkart’s help, today he caters to about 1,500 orders per day and has expanded his team to 20 members. Prepping up for the Diwali sale, Patel is also listing new products such as gift sets, jewellery boxes, cutlery sets to ensure good traction.
In Bengaluru, before jumping on the online retail bandwagon, Raju Lunawath sold electronics at his store in Majestic bus station area. However, after completing 7 years with Flipkart and delving into personal and healthcare products, Lunawath who runs Amazestore is one of the top-performing sellers with the company. For this year’s BBD, Lunawath fully utilized the ‘Fulfillment by Flipkart’ service so that his consumers can get deliveries faster. About 95 per cent of his business is through ‘fulfilment centres’ across 16 locations in the country. There was a huge pent-up demand that his business saw massive growth in the six days of the sale event. For him, the demand surpassed his growth from previous festive seasons.
Another top seller on Flipkart during BBD is Madhusudhanan Shanmugan. He had spent his childhood in Tiruppur and worked at Cognizant, Chennai. A one-year stint in London nudged him to come back to India and start a t-shirt business. Shanmugan joined Flipkart platform in 2016. He started selling t-shirts, sweatshirts, and other men’s apparel under the business name of Tripr. He customizes and tailors his designs to fit into everyone’s tastes and budgets. This year’s BBD surpassed all his previous sales records and he saw a 100 per cent growth in sales year on year. According to him, this was possible with the help of Flipkart’s fulfilment support and quick processing.
