Flipkart bets on services to drive its smartphone sales

While it continues to maintain a lead over arch-rival Amazon in the smartphone segment, ecommerce giant Flipkart is looking at making its platform more attractive by offering a gamut of services.

Its ‘Mobiles 40by20’ strategy is aimed at taking 40 per cent share of the entire smartphone market, online and offline, by 2020. Ayyappan Rajagopal, its senior director, smartphones, said the intent is to build ‘allround platform’ capacity, offering services to buyers across the processes of payments, buyback and mobile protection.

Flipkart, now majority-owned by US multinational retail giant Walmart, has been building its smartphone category over years. The e-tailer started by launching Motorola phones for Indian consumers. It then went on to forge exclusive partnerships with other smartphone makers.

“We re-introduced some iconic mobile phone brands like Motorola and Nokia over the past few years. We have also built awareness around smartphones in such a manner that the consumer base is aware about what they should be looking for. The next step is to boost it with our portfolio of platform services,” said Rajagopal.

Flipkart has introduced a number of programmes in this regard, such as monthly instalments on debit card payment, device exchange systems, phone service options and buyback guarantees. Rajagopal says these have together helped the time taken for users to upgrade devices from around 24 months in the past to 12-18 months now. With the ‘cost of ownership’ reduced, consumers seem more confident about replacing their devices on a regular basis, he added. Flipkart has already secured a corporate agency licence from the insurance sector regulator. It has partnered Bajaj Allianz General Insurance to offer a mobile phone insurance scheme. Customers who buy the plan will be offered a cash payout or a free pick-up and drop facility if their devices get damaged or stolen. Flipkart is also in the process of applying for a non-banking financial company licence, enabling it to lend to customers.

It claims 25 per cent of the country’s overall smartphone market in the country. And, says it is confident of making it 30 per cent this year — online festival sales for both Flipkart and Amazon ended on Monday.

With its ‘Mobiles 40by20’ plan, the e-commerce firm aims to corner 40% share in the entire segment by 2020