Thursday, March 28

Tag: flipkart

After Flipkart, Binny Bansal to Launch a new Startup
News

After Flipkart, Binny Bansal to Launch a new Startup

Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal who stepped down from his position recently is all set to launch a new company along with former McKinsey consultant Saikiran Krishnamurthy that will offer technology tools, learning and consulting services to growth- stage startups which are looking to scale up. The company will be called xto10x Technologies and has been funded by Bansal and Krishnamurthy, who headed Flipkart’s logistics arm Ekart and later spearheaded taxi-hailing firm Ola’s marketplace business. Also, the company is looking to hire a team by January next year, as it tests out its product with a clutch of startups. “The idea is to disrupt traditional consulting firms with tech-backed solutions and tools which do not require hundreds of partners,” a person f...
Flipkart Appoints Smriti Singh as the Chief Human Resources Officer
News

Flipkart Appoints Smriti Singh as the Chief Human Resources Officer

The e-commerce major Flipkart has appointed a chief human resources officer and has reportedly brought in former HR head for Sony Pictures Networks India, Smriti Singh. Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy sent a mail to employees on Tuesday announcing Singh’s appointment, stating that she will hold “overall responsibility for our people, talent, rewards, and L&D charter.” Singh will report to Krishnamurthy, and will head a team of five senior directors. She will fill a post that has been vacant following the exit of former COO Nitin Sethi last year. Singh has an experience of over two decades, having started at Xerox India followed by GE in India as well as in Tokyo, New York, and Singapore with GE Healthcare, Genpact and NBC Universal, before she joined Sony Pictures Network In...
Flipkart on a Hiring Spree, Looking for CTO & CPO
News

Flipkart on a Hiring Spree, Looking for CTO & CPO

Soon after co-founder Binny Bansal’s exit, the e-commerce giant Flipkart is on a hiring spree. The management is said to be in discussions with top headhunting firms to fill senior positions that have been vacant for a while, and thus, the company is looking for a new chief technology officer (CTO) and chief product officer (CPO). Flipkart’s CPO, Punit Soni left the company in 2016. In November last year, the e-commerce major had moved its chief of tech, Ravi Garikipati, to what it called the fin-tech department. Since then the tech team has been reporting to Krishnamurthy. Over the next two weeks, some expect Krishnamurthy to meet with some of the leading head hunters. Also, it was reported that the company had hired an HR head - Smriti Singh. The post was lying vacant for 18 months...
Flipkart Co-founder Binny Bansal Resigns Following Allegations of Misconduct
News

Flipkart Co-founder Binny Bansal Resigns Following Allegations of Misconduct

Binny Bansal, the co-founder and group CEO of India based e-commerce giant Flipkart has stepped down from the company with immediate effect. This step has been taken following an investigation into “serious personal misconduct.” This move has come up in less than six months after Walmart acquired a majority ownership in the company. In an email to Flipkart employees, Bansal said these allegations has left him stunned and strongly denies them. The latter founded Flipkart in 2007 with Sachin Bansal and he had served as its CEO since 2016, before going on to become CEO of the Flipkart Group. “For some time, I have been mulling over the right time to step away from an operating role at Flipkart Group. My plan was to continue in my current role for a few more quarters to continue the tra...
Online Sale of Smartphones in India to Cross 50 Million Mark
INDIA

Online Sale of Smartphones in India to Cross 50 Million Mark

The online sales of smartphone in India got a hype during the festive season sale on various e-commerce platforms and thus, it is all set to cross the 50 million mark in a year for the first time ever in 2018. The year was driven by discounts, buy-back offers and easy financing options offered by retailers such as Flipkart and Amazon and others especially at the time of the festive season. Research firm CMR estimated that online sales in the fourth quarter of 2018 will increase 60-65% year-on-year and on the other hand, sales in bricks-and-mortar stores are likely to fall 4-6%. Counterpoint Research has projected a 51% increase in online sales and 11% for offline. “With the onset of festival season, more smartphone vendors in partnership with e-commerce players are offering discount...
Google Soon to Launch its ‘Shopping’ Tab in India
News

Google Soon to Launch its ‘Shopping’ Tab in India

The technology giant and the largest search engine Google is reportedly going to launch its ‘Shopping’ tab in India. This would allow users to search for products to buy and directing them to merchant websites or e-commerce platforms for product listings. The tab is currently in working and in a few months, the Shopping tab will be piloted soon, prior to a full-fledged launch before the end of the year. “We are always exploring options to help consumers find the products they want to buy more quickly and efficiently from local merchants,” a Google spokesperson stated. Google has been in talks with e-commerce players such as Flipkart, Paytm Mall and Snapdeal to join together in the company’s shopping tab initiative. Besides large e-commerce websites, Google is also expected to tap into...
Flipkart Makes it Compulsory for Sellers to Use its Branded Packaging
News

Flipkart Makes it Compulsory for Sellers to Use its Branded Packaging

The Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has announced that the company has made it compulsory for all sellers on its platform to use only Flipkart-branded packaging for delivering goods to consumers. The company says that this move would be environment-friendly and cooperative with regulations in states such as Maharashtra where single-use plastic have been banned. The retail major has stated that the sellers that do not follow the rules will have to face consequences. The company will penalize non-compliant sellers by blocking their accounts or not delivering their orders. The policy has been launched a few weeks before the festive sales are set to begin. “This is a restrictive policy and is being forced through account suspension,” a spokesperson for the All India Online Vendors Associa...
Walmart India’s E-commerce Entity Flipkart Acquires Israel Based Startup
ACQUISITION

Walmart India’s E-commerce Entity Flipkart Acquires Israel Based Startup

E-commerce major Flipkart said it has acquired Israel-based Upstream Commerce for an undisclosed amount as the Walmart-backed firm aims to further strengthen its selection and pricing capabilities. Flipkart, which is locked in an intense battle for market leadership in India against American rival Amazon, will get access to advanced data science-based intelligent solutions through the acquisition, it said in a statement. The buyout of Upstream Commerce, which offers cloud-based, automated competitive pricing and product analysis solutions, will also strengthen Flipkart's ability to deliver insights to its sellers, it added. Post the acquisition, the Upstream Commerce team, while continuing to work out of Israel, will become part of Flipkart. "With the Upstream acquisition, we wil...
Walmart to Purchase Flipkart ESOPs worth $800 Million
ACQUISITION

Walmart to Purchase Flipkart ESOPs worth $800 Million

After the Flipkart-Walmart deal, many steps have been taken by Walmart in favor of the merger. This time the company has planned to purchase from Flipkart employees ESOPs worth nearly $800 million. The worth of Flipkart’s total Esop is about $1.5 billion based on the per-share purchase price. Flipkart announced to its current employees that they will be allowed to liquidate their employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) at $126-128 a unit, on the basis of the charges applicable. The retail giant  Walmart is obligated to purchase 6,242,271 shares from Flipkart’s ESOP pool of 11,947,026 shares. “The ESOP repurchase programme, a yardstick for the industry, is part of our continuing efforts to thank and reward our employees for their service,” a spokesperson for Flipkart said. The employees...
Flipkart Rolls Out Cardless Credit for Customers Amid Festive Season
BUSINESS

Flipkart Rolls Out Cardless Credit for Customers Amid Festive Season

With the upcoming festive season, the e-commerce platforms are gearing up for various mediums to attract customers through methods like festive season sale and offers. With this, the e-commerce player Flipkart has come up with a fresh feature that is a credit line for customers to complete their shopping on the platform. This credit line is known as ‘Cardless Credit’ which will allow the customers to get an instant credit line of up to Rs 60,000 based on the user’s creditworthiness. The customers who do not have a formal credit access, through this feature, can purchase products and in turn trigger a growth in the gross merchandise value for the e-commerce major Flipkart. “Close to 45 million customers on our platform do not have formal access to credit and a good portion of this is em...
Four Senior Walmart Officials Take Transfer to Flipkart
News

Four Senior Walmart Officials Take Transfer to Flipkart

Soon after the Walmart-Flipkart deal, four senior leaders from the US retail giant have been appointed at the Flipkart Group level. The four senior leaders will make the transfer by October. The executives that are supposed to make the transfer are Walmart's M&A head Emily McNeal, who will join the Flipkart Group as senior vice president and group chief financial officer. Another official that will take a transfer consist of Daniel De La Garza, who has come on board as vice president and chief ethics and compliance officer. Next will be Grant Coad as general counsel and Dawn Ptak as vice president and group controller. “Each of these leaders currently leads crucial charters at Walmart and will bring a wealth of experience to the Flipkart Group,” stated co-founder Binny Bansal. “The...
Soon after the Flipkart Acquisition, Walmart Paid Rs 7,439 Crore Tax
News

Soon after the Flipkart Acquisition, Walmart Paid Rs 7,439 Crore Tax

One of the largest retail player Walmart has reportedly paid Rs 7,439 crore tax on the payments the company made to acquire the shares of 10 major shareholders of Flipkart. Various shareholders of Flipkart including the major ones like SoftBank, Naspers, venture fund Accel Partners and eBay, had sold their holdings to Walmart. On the last date for depositing taxes with the Indian authorities that is on 7th September, Walmart paid Rs 7,439 crore withholding tax on payments made to 10 shareholders of Flipkart. "Of the 44 shareholders in Flipkart who have sold shares, Walmart has deposited taxes for only 10 funds and entities. We have asked Walmart to explain the rationale followed while deducting or not deducting taxes from the shareholders. They have been asked to give a case to case ex...