Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO – Flipkart

Recently, I had the privilege of speaking with Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO – Flipkart at the #IndiaConferenceHarvard2020. Here are some key takeaways from what he shared:

1. India is a complex market with some really peculiar problems/opportunities. Problems of cash, branded retail, choice, etc. Flipkart is focused on creating homegrown and innovative solutions for these issues whereas there are competitors who are focused on driving customer behaviour to suit their strengths (faster delivery). The market may not necessarily need those solutions

2. 85% of retail in India is unbranded. Much higher than what it is in other countries. This will change over time but today, it poses challenges. We are trying to get these millions of small vendors on-board and help them grow through our platform. And we have just scratched the surface

4. The game is India is that of penetration. Having access to these tier 3 or 4 markets is the key and competitors like these (Jio) only help us expand that market

5. Eventually, e-commerce may pan out to be a 70-10-10-10 game. The unorganized sector will become more and more organized and there will be a clear winner like we have seen in other markets (US and China)

6. It is so important for the government to involve key players in policy making. In India, the government has done exactly that. Initiatives like the UPI have helped us considerably as handling cash in e-commerce is painful