Monday 18 April 2016

Flipkart aims to be top furniture etailer, ties up with Godrej

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Flipkart now wants monopoly in the domain of furniture. The company’s goal is to be the top furniture retailer in India by the end of the year. The India based ecommerce company introduced the furniture segment about six months back.
The segment appears to be doing well for Flipkart, says Sandeep C Patil, senior director at the company,
“We have just scratched the surface. Furniture is a $20 billion market, which is bigger than the mobile phone market.”
Speculations are on that the company is looking at making furniture sales worth Rs. 2,600 crores by end of the year.
The company is working towards partnerships with Godrej Interio and Get International. Flipkart is also bringing in home appliances services company Jeeves Consumer, in which the former had invested in 2014. Jeeves is likely to provide assistance in installing the purchased furniture.

No rosy path

The online furniture segment is fraught with intense competition. Flipkart has to look out for exclusive furniture sites like Pepperfry and Urban Ladder as well as Fabfurnish, which was recently purchased by furniture retailer Hometown (as part of Kishore Biyani to work an omnichannel mode of selling).
Urban Ladder is confident of making a net income of Rs. 1,300 crores this year, and Hometown and Fabfurnish are expected to make a combined sale of Rs. 800 to 1,000 crores by end of year.
Furniture is one of the upcoming categories in ecommerce. The market is good and is growing sizeably. It is understandable that everyone wants to make good of this opportunity. Flipkart seems to have a good chance, and is working around the edges. Market leaders Urban Ladder, Pepperfry and FabFurnish are contemporaries, and already have a good three to four years run under their belt. Flipkart has a lot of catching up to do.

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