Flipkart to make inroads in small cities with cheaper deals

E-commerce platform Flipkart is looking to focus on Tier II cities with value play instead of delivery speed, taking a long-term view of its business strategy in the country. This will help it to grow its business further. The focus is to offer products at the best possible rates to seek value-seeking consumers. Flipakart's focus on rural and semi-rural belts come after US retail giant Walmart picked up a controllable 77 per cent stake in 2018.

The company has been growing its seller base of MSMEs through direct reach and collaboration with industry bodies. The e-commerce platform now has 200,000 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) firms as active members on the platform.

The online retail giant has also been focusing on roping in more artisans and has come up with the Samarth program which has been designed to guide artisans to sell online and become familiar with the online model of sales. Under this initiative, artisans are helped with on boarding, cataloguing, account management, business insights, dedicated seller support, reduced commission where eligible, and warehousing support.