Flipkart is India’s largest online mega store and often called as India’s Amazon. This e-commerce company was started in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal with Bangalore as its headquarters. Initially Flipkart concentrated on online sales of books and later expanded to multiple categories like electronic goods, beauty & health care, gaming, home & kitchen, mobile phones & accessories, computers, refrigerators, personal care, hair care etc.
Recently I have been hearing of multiple complaints about the quality of the products Flipkart is delivering and the way the customer care is behaving with the consumers. I shall write a review on that very soon. Meanwhile below are the merits and demerits of Flipkart I have observed in the last couple of years.
Advantages of Flipkart :
Below are the advantages of Flipkart based on my personal experience, friends’ feedback and other reviews I read on internet.
1. Flipkart is really India’s largest online mega store. They have huge number of products in multiple categories. I don’t think there is another Indian online portal where you can see such number categories of products. They have millions of books available even before launching with an option of pre-ordering.
2. Flipkart has tie ups with multiple courier services and hence can deliver most of the products to most of the areas in time. The delivery service is also professional. Cash on Delivery option is available with a 30 day replacement warranty.
3. They have wide range of blu-ray and 3D movies, Flyte music downloads, games available.
4. Flipkart also launched Clothing, Sports Wear and Cosmetics range which are of the best brands in the market.
5. Flipkart offers good discounts on many of the products available which you hardly find on other websites.
6. Flipkart sells only good quality, branded and non-damaged products only.
Do you know that you can also earn good amount of money from Flipkart ? I am earning good amount of money in free time with Flipkart affiliate program. You do not need to sell products for this. Read How to earn from Flipkart Affiliate Program along with details, advantages and disadvantages of the program to understand more about it. Post your comment if you want more details, I shall reply with an answer as I have good experience in that.
Disadvantages of Flipkart :
1. They deliver products only in India. No service available outside India even if you are willing to pay extra money. The service is not available for certain areas in India also. You can check availability by giving the place pin code in their site.
2. One of the major complaints I have been hearing recently is their service. Sometimes, the products are delivered but the packages are empty making the customers stunned. The customer service does not respond properly for this. They ask for proof that it was really not delivered. Flipkart needs to do something on how and what delivery boys are doing.
3. The service is not upto the mark in villages when compared to the urban areas. Sometimes they take lot of time to deliver products in rural areas.
4. The minimum order for free home delivery is increased to 500/- recently while some other sites are doing it for lesser than that.
Flipkart has already bought Snapdel, Jabong, eBay India and mYntra. Do you what is the big plan behind that? This is a dog-eating-dog strategy of Flipkart to buy all competitors and become a monopoly. Read Flipkart Success Strategies, Acquisitions And Comparison With Competitors to understand the strategies of Flipkart.