Flipkart pursues profitability through private brands

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Dec 22, 2017

Over the course of the past year, the e-commerce giant Flipkart has been cultivating a range of in-house brands and these now form a major part of their growth strategy, hoping for them to account for 15 to 20 percent of total sales within three years.

Flipkart has launched an array of private label brands this year across a wide range of products categories, including fashion. Flipkart already has the subsidiary Myntra which is an online fashion retailer and carries both private label brands and other domestic and foreign brands but Flipkart itself is also launching private fashion brands. Some of the brands that they have launched this year include the ethnic wear brand Divastri and contemporary ethnic wear brand Anmi.

The positive response that these private label fashion brands have garnered has led Flipkart to position them at the helm of their growth strategy for 2018. "“Private label is very important for us. If I look at all the initiatives we are doing in the company and pick, say, the top five, especially building for the longer term, private label will be there,” said Flipkart’s Chief Executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy.

The business also launched the private brand Billion this year which carries a range of product categories from electronics to fashion. Sachin Bansal, the Executive Chairman of Flipkart, is overseeing the running of Billion and has high hopes for its growth on the Flipkart platform.

Flipkart have taken pointers from across the international online marketplace for their private brands, including from Amazon, which launched Amazon Basics in 2009, and Macy’s. Flipkart also looked to its fashion centred subsidiary Myntra, which has a wide range of private brands, for inspiration.

Private brands are proving to be a high earner online and Flipkart executives are confident that they are capable of making up almost a fifth of sales within three years, something that could also turn the business profitable.