Flipkart gives push to private labels during sale event

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Jul 12, 2017

India’s leading e-commerce player Flipkart is back with another sale event to continue its momentum and maintain lead over rival Amazon which had a successful Prime day debut in India on Tuesday.

Flipkart will give a major push to its recently launched fashion private labels Divastri and Metronaut, by offering up to 70% discount on the brands.

The e-commerce player had recently ventured into the private label space with the launch of ethnic womenswear brand Divastri and men’s casual & formal wear brand Metronaut.

It is surprising that Flipkart is offering such heavy discounts on these brands as they are less than a month old. During the launch of these brands Rishi Vasudev, vice president, Flipkart Fashion had said that there will be less discounting to clear stocks for these brands, however within a month of their launch these brands are available online at heavy discounted prices.

Post the Goods and Services Tax (GST) roll out across the country, e-commerce firms have been offering heavy discount as some sellers who have failed to comply with the new tax regime are trying to finish their stocks.

It looks like Flipkart has tweaked its strategy to maintain its lead over rival e-commerce firms like Amazon by offering discounts on its in-house brands without being dependent on other sellers. Private labels also give the e-commerce firms higher margins as compared to those sold by sellers on their platform.

Flipkart's CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy emphasising the need for sales told the Economic Times that Sales are important for Flipkart and added that his company was ahead of Amazon in India’s e-commerce battle. "We at Flipkart (not including Myntra and Jabong), are much bigger and outsell them (Amazon) in all categories, except grocery where we are not present but will be entering soon," said Krishnamurthy.