Starting a business is a daunting task, and the journey to success is far from easy. Once a startup is launched, the real work begins – the burden of nurturing it, improving it, and ensuring its lifelong profitability. The process of turning an idea into a profitable enterprise is a complex one, involving a wide range of challenges and obstacles. These challenges are only exacerbated by the volatile, uncertain, and ambiguous nature of the modern business world. In this world, market demands and financial factors are constantly shifting, making it difficult for startups to stay ahead of the curve and make the necessary adjustments to stay afloat. This requires the startup to be able to be flexible, agile and adaptable, being able to pivot as the environment changes. Additionally, it demands a constant effort to improve and optimize operations, explore new revenue streams, and to be constantly on the lookout for new opportunities. Successful startups are able to navigate these challenges and uncertainties by being innovative, flexible, and by having a long-term vision for growth and profitability. 

That being said, we can learn from the startups in the past that have initially gone through their own fair share of trials and difficulties but ultimately came out on top. This is the story of Flipkart. 

What is Flipkart? 

Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce company that was founded in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. It initially focused on selling books online, but quickly expanded to other product categories such as electronics, fashion and more.  

Its humble beginnings can be traced back to 2007, when it was founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, two Indian software engineers who had previously worked at Amazon. The company was initially started as an online bookstore, operating out of a small apartment in Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore), India. In the beginning, the company relied on taking the orders online, and then purchasing the books from the retail stores and shipping them to customers. As the orders started to grow and volume became too big to handle, the company started to work with wholesalers and publishers to get books in bulk. 

As a startup, Flipkart faced several challenges in its early days, such as a lack of customer trust in online shopping, a challenging logistics infrastructure in India, and intense competition from larger, established companies. However, the company was able to respond to these challenges in a number of ways: 

1. Building trust with customers: Flipkart made a concerted effort to build trust with its customers by offering a 30-day return policy, cash-on-delivery payments, and easy-to-use website and mobile app. This helped to alleviate customers’ concerns about the reliability and safety of online shopping. 
2. Improving logistics: Flipkart faced significant logistical challenges in its early days due to the poor state of India’s transportation and delivery infrastructure. To overcome this, the company built its own logistics and delivery network, which enabled it to control the delivery process from start to finish and improve delivery times. 
3. Differentiating themselves from the competition: Flipkart differentiated themselves from the competition by introducing a wide range of products and creating a unique, user-friendly interface. It also began to offer a wider range of services such as easy-return policies, payment options and more. 
4. Investing in technology: Flipkart invested in technology to make the shopping experience more seamless and convenient for customers. For example, the company implemented machine learning to personalize recommendations, improved their mobile apps, and introduced features such as image search. 
5. Expansion: Finally, Flipkart expanded to new products and services as they grew in popularity. Flipkart started to work with wholesale partners, and expanded to other categories such as electronics, fashion, home appliances and more. 

The two were also able to secure funding from investors and began expanding their product offerings to include a wider range of items, such as electronics, home appliances and fashion. With this, Flipkart was able to reduce costs, as well as improve delivery times. Over time, Flipkart grew in popularity and became one of the most visited e-commerce websites in India, and thus began to acquire more and more customers. 

The company has grown rapidly over the years, and in 2018, it was acquired by Walmart for $16 billion, making it one of the most valuable e-commerce companies in India. 

Will you be the next success story? 

Flipkart’s story just proved that it’s more than possible for any startup to reach heights beyond our wildest dreams. Like the old saying goes, “the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is now.” 

Do you want your startup to reach new heights as well? Then check out our courses using this link.