Flipkart the Indian e-commerce giant that changed the way Indians did their shopping. From ebook seller to pin to plane provider, is what Flipkart has become, in a span of hardly 8 to 10 years. Now it is further expanding itself, but this time by selling its 70%+ shares to Walmart, the American online giant and the fierce competitor of Amazon.
Flipkart will be entering the refurbished goods market the value of which is pegged to be around $15 billion. This sector is mostly unorganised and Flipkart is trying to capitalise on the same.
Let’s know how the Flipkart forayed in this segment.
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Very recently in last year eBay invested in Flipkart to scale up the eBay India operations and push the refurbished goods business there. But with change in economics when Walmart decided to invest in Flipkart, following which eBay ended its strategic partnership with the Indian e-tailer. Now eBay has altogether ended its India operations and we get the following message on app.
2GUD is currently available only on mobile web, Flipkart plans to take 2GUD across desktop & an app too soon.
The business model of 2GUD will be on following lines:
- The 2GUD platform will sell refurbished smartphones laptops, tablets & electronic accessories.
- They are expected to be far cheaper than new ones as they will be used ones.
- The products will come with guarantee of 3-12 months, as they will be subject to stringent industry tests and for that third party partners will be roped in.
- There will be around 160 centers across the country which will play major role in the refurbished market which the e-tailers acquired last year form Fl Solutions.
There are other older players in this refurbished market like Quikr and OLX allowing buyer-to-seller interaction. Sequoia-backed Zefo is another player in this space that has largely adopted the model being tested by Flipkart. Now it is to be sent how the new player will perform in this market of refurbished goods. The competition is going to get tougher as older players will push for more innovative moves to retain their position, it is going to get interesting.