Flipkart, India’s biggest ecommerce company reported a 43% rise in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) for six months quarter which ended on 30 September 2017. As per a half yearly financial report from Flipkart’s investor Naspers, the ecommerce giant has seen a considerable jump in its market share from the same period a year ago. However, the company did not disclose Flipkart’s GMV. The report states, Flipkart’s share of monthly GMV stood at roughly 58% in June this year, up from 45% in June 2016.
Flipkart, according to the report, has further strengthened its position in the Indian ecommerce ecosystem. The ecommerce company has been able to consistently hold its own against Amazon India during the recently concluded festive season sale. Despite facing a tough 18 months and loosing considerably market share, Flipkart managed to secure substantial capital from investors such as Tencent and SoftBank.
In the report, Naspers said, “Flipkart, the group’s equity accounted investment in India, continued its growth acceleration and further solidified its market leadership. During the recent festive season sales period, Flipkart captured around 70% of the total ecommerce market.” In the report, Naspers further added Flipkart.com is the category leader in 12 of 20 focus categories, including mobile phones, TVs, laptops and fashion. Currently, Naspers holds a 14% stake in Flipkart.
Meanwhile, Flipkart’s chief rival in the ecommerce industry, Amazon.com, claims it is the second largest player in traffic, accounting for 58% traffic on personal computers, 129% on mobile web and have 52% more app downloads. An Amazon spokesperson also said, “There are no credible third party reports analyzing the growth of the ecommerce sector in India. Though as per the recent Kantar IMRB reports for the festive season, Amazon.in leads with the highest customer share of 44% and order share of 42%.”
Flipkart saw a turnaround in its sales revenue after Kalyan Krishnamurthy took over as the CEO. Recently, mutual fund investor Morgan Stanley also marked up the valuation of Flipkart to $ 9.36 billion for the September quarter. This mark up comes after Morgan Stanley marked down the ecommerce company’s valuation for five consecutive quarters. While Amazon India has successfully built its brand name in the country, it is still facing cut throat competition from Flipkart to capture the Indian ecommerce market which is poised to reach $ 200 billion by 2026.
