Presentation on Flipkart

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS - CSE 329 - PROF. SANJIBAN S. ROY - C1 +TC1

ANALYSIS OF FLIPKART FROM MIS POINT OF VIEW

Flipkart is divided into three main teams which are designed to work in parallel and thus, make it easier for not only Flipkart to enhance customer satisfaction but also to ensure ease of purchasing and timely delivery and grievance reconciliation for the consumer. These 3 wings are:-

1. Product & Technology Team: It is responsible for maintaining the website and ensuring correct listing of items and also Search Engine Optimization to yield better and more pertinent search results. It is responsible for enterprise resource planning which results in automation of the numerous back-office functions, thus cutting costs and increasing efficiency.
2. Business Development Team: It is responsible for vendor management and pricing strategies.
3. Operations Team: It deals with the supply chain aspect of the organization such as procurement, warehousing and logistics support. It also contains the customer support team which mainly focusses on helping on customers navigate the website successfully and in satisfactory resolution of grievances.

The basic measure of Flipkart’s customer satisfaction depends on its timely delivery of quality products. This is done by a sophisticated system which relies on:-

1. Inward Processing: Procurement relies on their in-house inventory & Just-In-Time procurement from regional vendors. Pre-packaging products the moment they are sourced in accordance with the nature of the product (eg. free offer items, auxiliary items which might promote Flipkart such as bookmarks with books).
2. Storage Management: Generation of Put-List to be able to place products on respective shelves carefully and systematically to be able to recall them fast.
3. Onward Processing: Generation of Pick-List on the basis of orders and handing it over to delivery agency (eKart, third-party courier or India Post) for subsequent delivery.

Flipkart has for a long time focussed on creating pet-products and services to help cut-down on commission costs. This not only saves them money but ensures a quality of service which could have been difficult to ensure due to reliance on third-party vendors and suppliers. These ventures include:-

1. WS Retail handles the inventory and warehouse management. Thus reducing the dependence on third-party warehouses and reducing cases of customer dissatisfaction due to product unavailability. This also allows them to “inventorise” smartly to ensure enough stock of “fast-selling items” & for special sale events such as the “Big Billion Day”. Bulk procurement at better prices, is done for such special days. They also provide for Just-In-Time Procurement (JIT), which is done only when a customer actually buys a “low-demand” product on their site, such procurement is relatively expensive.
2. eKart Logistics is the in-house logistics team which is used by WS Retail to eventually reach the consumers and reduces their dependency on third-party courier agencies and India Post. eKL services around 150 cities. Because it is an in-house venture, it effectively offers reliable reverse logistics and Cash-on-Delivery services. Flipkart has expanded its reach to cities not yet serviced by eKL by tying up with more than 15 third-party courier agencies such as First Flight. The last resort is India Post, mainly because of its high delivery time and non-availability of CoD.
3. PayZippy was Flipkart’s venture into the mobile-payment industry to ensure hassle-free payment services for the customer, but was eventually shut-down due to an investment into Ngpay (Next Generation Pay), which provides similar solutions for customers as well as merchants.