Q1.

No

Q2. Yes

Q3. Yes

Q 4. Yes, Flipkart gained due to first mover advantage in the online space, being the first of its kind in
the e-commerce space in the country. It enjoyed no competition for a long time which helped it to
gain 43% of the market share till the time major players like Amazon entered India. This huge user
base helped the company to build trust and face the challenge from Amazon. Flipkart was able to
scale its business over the period of six years before it went head to head with Amazon, if today it
were to start a competition with big players in the space it would be a challenging task for it to bite
into the market share.

Q5. Amazon followed a hybrid model with a dominant inventory led model while Flipkart followed
an Inventory led model and eventually moved to a marketplace model.

Amazon introduced features like Amazon Tatkal for sellers, global selling program, fulfilment by
Amazon, easy ship, seller flex etc. while Flipkart had corresponding features like Flipkart Advantage.

Amazon leveraged its customer’s loyalty through Amazon Prime which also acted as a source of
revenue for them, while Flipkart’s second source of revenue was advertisements.

Flipkart was fast to get into the price wars while Amazon continued to distinguish itself through
innovative means to attract both customers and sellers.

Q6. Hybrid

Q7. Flipkart must follow a Hybrid Strategy where in it can follow an inventory led model for high
margin products, it will ensure quality assurance and better customer service & trust, However the
cost of inventory is high, cost of logistics is high.

For low margin products we can follow a marketplace model which will ensure that major cost is
borne by the seller, more inventory space available, lower contingency cost and higher reach in Tier
3 and 4 towns where there is no standard form of addresses. However the issues with this model is
quality assurance will be difficult which will affect overall customer service and trust.

Hence Flipkart should go for a Hybrid Model.

Q8. Yes

Q9. Yes, Flipkart did the right thing to allow Walmart to acquire it as the e-commerce landscape was
getting highly competitive and Flipkart was bleeding heavily with losses. Hence, they needed deep
pockets to continue the fight and retain the market share which is diminishing at a high rate. Also,
Walmart being a big retail giant in the offline retail sector can bring its core competencies of
everyday low price which might make them the price leader in the market.