Flipkart Trains Lakhs of MSME Sellers Ahead of The Big Billion Days

Flipkart, India’s homegrown e-commerce marketplace, hosted a very practical month-long Learning and Development Program for its pan-India seller base to apprise them with best practices and insights to boost their business during the upcoming festive season. Flipkart’s flagship sale-event - The Big Billion Days is set to go live from October 16 till October 21, 2020, giving sellers, MSMEs, micro-businesses, women entrepreneurs, artisans, weavers and handicraft makers an opportunity to further grow their business and reap in the benefits of e-commerce.

Not with-holding the sellers from the experience of networking and meeting Flipkart’s leadership, the event was hosted through 16 sessions, spanned over a month on a customized virtual platform. The event enabled Flipkart’s country-wide seller ecosystem to connect with the team through unique 1:1 networking sessions and keynote speakers. Further, sellers got to learn about the latest initiatives from Flipkart and understand and gather learnings to gear up for the festive season, as they scale up their operations to meet the massive festive season demand.

This year, the virtual event saw a 4X increase in participation from sellers in comparison to 2019. Sellers from smaller cities such as Vadodara, Nasik, Ernakulam, Agra, Rajkot, Mathura and Trivandrum attended the event for the first time, owing to the virtual learning set-up - allowing attendees to log-in from anywhere in the country.

Sellers were very excited about these workshops and are now looking forward to the Big Billion Day festive event. One such seller from Mathura, Gaurav Chaudhary who started his business ‘Retail Store’ selling jewelry online, was able to have his operations team and himself attend the event and understand the latest campaigns/initiatives by Flipkart for The Big Billion Days 2020. Gaurav has been a seller with Flipkart since 2017 and has been seeing a steady increase in his business. According to him, each year the consumer behavior differs and brings new demand from them. Keeping abreast of market trends and making timely promotions on the platform is the key to running an online business successfully, especially as the market is competitive. “Events like these allow us to stay on top of understanding the demand curve and learn each year on the changing practices. Being hosted virtually this year, I was able to make my team also gather this knowledge first-hand as we gear up for the festive season.”

Another such beneficiary of the Learning and Development event hosted by Flipkart is Nikunj Gondaliya from Delhi, who runs his business ‘Patiala House’ for women ethnic wear such as suits, dress materials, sarees, lehenga-choli, among others. He joined Flipkart in 2014 and now has scaled up his team to 45-employees - some of them temporarily hired to ramp up his festive season operations. For him, The Big Billion Days is a much-awaited sale-season that he looks forward to each year as his business sees exponential growth in the week-long frenzy. The event allowed him to connect with Flipkart’s leadership 1:1 to discuss his preparation for the upcoming months, especially as he feels there is a lot of pent-up demand and consumers are waiting for the festive season to get value-driven deals. According to Nikunj, “This year more than ever, consumers’ will look for affordable deals and we want to be prepared with their expectations as they come to shop online during The Big Billion Days. With the help of the event, we were able to figure some of the best practices which my team is now working on applying so that we are able to cater to the demand in an efficient and timely manner, and ensure that no delivery is delayed.”

Jagjeet Harode, Flipkart

Jagjeet Harode, Senior Director and Head - Marketplace, Flipkart, added, “Our seller partners play a crucial role in bringing valuable, unique and affordable offerings to Indian consumers through Flipkart’s platform. Our constant endeavor is to support them in this journey with smarter practices, deeper insights into the consumer’s behavior and operational support. These events are our way of connecting with them and understand their requirements and needs as well, especially as they ramp up their services to grow their business during the festive season. We are here to democratize commerce using technology & innovation and give lakhs of MSMEs, micro-businesses and artisans, weavers and handicraft makers on our platform the right learnings and insights to grow their business.”

The festive season is one of the most anticipated periods for any online business as consumer demand sees a spike, leading to some of the sellers witnessing a years’ worth of business in one month. The success of online businesses during this season depends on their preparation and understanding of the online platform. Flipkart’s initiatives are designed to support them through this journey.