Bangalore, April 2, 2015: Flipkart, India's leading e-commerce marketplace, has roped in txtWeb Co-Founder - Manish Maheshwari as VP Head of their Seller Ecosystem.

In his new role, Manish will be responsible for driving key initiatives such as seller acquisition, enablement growth and helping to beef up the overall seller ecosystem team.

Commenting on Manish's appointment, Ankit Nagori, SVP - Marketplace, said, Manish's experience leads to him having a great understanding of SMEs in India. He has a proven track record of building cross-functional teams with a constant focus on customer experience. This will add a lot of value to the business as we move towards becoming a best-of-breed seller ecosystem that's simultaneously centered around the customer.

As the co-founder of txtWeb, Maheshwari grew the company from scratch to make it the world's largest marketplace for text-based apps with over 16 million mobile users in India alone. Prior to founding txtWeb, Maheshwari was the Head of New Markets, Global Business Division at Intuit, one of the world's leading provider of software products for SMEs and retailers.

"I am extremely delighted to be a part of Flipkart and intend to help in accelerating the growth of sellers on its marketplace platform. Flipkart's business is all about its customers, and to provide them with an extensive selection of products, we need to continuously work hand-in-hand with the upcoming entrepreneurs on our platform who are the true drivers of our business, commented Maheshwari.

An MBA graduate from Wharton Business School, he has also worked at McKinsey, where he advised Fortune 500 companies on new market entry and growth strategy in technology, e-commerce and consumer spaces.

Bangalore, April 2, 2015: Flipkart, India's leading e-commerce marketplace, has appointed Anand KV as the Senior Vice President, Customer Experience - Commerce Platform. Anand will be responsible for driving the customer experience charter for Flipkart's marketplace.

"As Flipkart scales and ventures into newer territories within the ecommerce space, the need to maintain our focus on a superior customer experience has become paramount. We are confident that Anand, with his depth of experience in the customer engagement space is a great fit to lead Flipkart in this initiative." said Mukesh Bansal, Head- Commerce Platform, Flipkart. "He is well recognized in the industry for his disciplines in execution, and for delivering productive results."

Prior to Flipkart, Anand spent over 18 years in the satellite broadcasting and Direct To Home (DTH) satellite television industry across Middle East, Hong Kong and India. During his long years in the DTH industry, he created the model for service delivery, customer advocacy and made Tata Sky synonymous with great customer service. In his last stint, Anand worked with Hathway Cable Datacom Ltd., as President Digital Platforms.

"It's very exciting to work for a company that's shaping the e-commerce ecosystem in India." said Anand KV. "From the very beginning Flipkart's key differentiator in the ecommerce industry has been its exceptional customer service. I'm keen to be a part of this family and Flipkart's journey and take the customer engagement story to the next level."

Bangalore, April 9, 2015: Flipkart, India's leading e-commerce marketplace, announced today that Peeyush Ranjan will join the company as Senior Vice President and Head of Engineering.

Ranjan spent the last nine years at Google in its Mountainview, Calif., headquarters, where most recently he managed Google's Android One engineering group. He has also managed Motorola's Value Devices engineering group and was Managing Director of Google India for research development.

Ranjan will work closely with Mukesh Bansal, Head of Flipkart Commerce Platform, and the Commerce Platform's leadership team to build on Flipkart's strong technology expertise and support its commitment to excellence as a world-class technology company. The senior appointment comes shortly after Flipkart announced the hire of Punit Soni as Chief Product Officer. Soni was a senior product management executive for Google and Motorola. Both men are moving from Mountainview, Calif., to Flipkart's headquarters in Bangalore.

Soni and Ranjan have worked closely together for Google and Motorola including on the launch of Motorola's Moto G and Moto E devices, which were both highly popular in emerging markets including India.

Mukesh Bansal said: Peeyush's experience managing Google's engineering group in India and his expertise in mobile is a tremendous addition to Flipkart's outstanding technology team. His passion for working on innovative projects will be extremely valuable as Flipkart takes shape as one of the world's leading technology companies.

Sachin Bansal, CEO Co-founder, Flipkart said: I am delighted Peeyush will be moving from the Bay Area to Bangalore to play this important role in Flipkart's further development. The fact that world-class talent like Peeyush and Punit Soni before him are joining Flipkart proves India has arrived as the next center for technology development.

Ranjan holds degrees in Computer Science from IIT Kharagpur and Purdue University and an MBA from the University of Washington.

Bangalore, April 2, 2015: Flipkart, India's leading e-commerce marketplace, today announced the appointment of Hari Vasudev as the Senior Vice President- Engineering, IT Analytics for Supply

Hari, in his role, will spearhead the charter to build innovative supply chain products and services enabled by technology, focusing on key areas such as robotics, mobile, IOT and data sciences. He will help Fllipkart scale and build the business and address customer needs even more effectively.

Binny Bansal, Co-founder and COO - Flipkart said, Hari, with his rich experience, has built and scaled organizations across multiple domains in the software industry. His expertise will help us in transforming supply chain in India by using technology to create a highly differentiated customer experience at a very large scale.

Prior to Flipkart, Hari worked with Yahoo! Inc. as the VP Center Head. He played a key role in the growth of the center, working on a range of end-to-end consumer products and various platform products in the consumer and advertising domains. Hari spent over eight years at Yahoo and held various leadership positions within the search and platforms teams. He also has experience in working with diverse technology companies in the Silicon Valley.

Commenting on his move, Hari said, This is a fantastic opportunity. Flipkart is transforming e- commerce in India by constantly raising the bar on customer-centricity. Supply chain has been a core differentiator for Flipkart and I look forward to contributing positively in this exciting journey.

Sachin Bansal, CEO Co-founder, Flipkart said: I am delighted Peeyush will be moving from the Bay Area to Bangalore to play this important role in Flipkart's further development. The fact that world-class talent like Peeyush and Punit Soni before him are joining Flipkart proves India has arrived as the next center for technology development.

Hari has a master's degree in Computer Science from Iowa State University and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.

Bangalore, March, 2015: Flipkart, India's leading e-commerce marketplace, today announced that Punit Soni, a Google product management executive and former vice president officer

Punit will lead the product definition and innovation charter for Flipkart consumer products, marketplace and transaction platform. In this role, Punit will be driving Product Strategy, Design and Product Marketing functions to build world class user interface and product solutions.

Mukesh Bansal, Head of Flipkart Commerce Platform, said, The next stage of Flipkart is here. As we build a leading-edge technology company, we are pleased to welcome Punit to Bangalore to lead our product-related initiatives. His deep experience in launching successful tech-related products and his extensive relationships in the U.S. and abroad will help Flipkart stay on the cutting edge.

Sachin Bansal, Co-founder and Flipkart Group CEO added Flipkart has always been a pioneer in innovative solutions. Punit will help accelerate our innovation agenda in building products that consumers love.

Soni said: India is the next center of tech innovation and growth globally, and I'm excited to participate by moving to Bangalore for Flipkart. The next world-class technology company will come out of India, and that company will be Flipkart.

As a senior product leader at Google and Motorola in Mountain View, California, Soni was involved in the development of some of the world's most revolutionary products including Google News, Google Books, Google Plus, Google Mobile and a suite of Motorola devices including Moto X, Moto G and Moto E. He holds an undergraduate degree (B.Tech) in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra, a masters degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wyoming and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Bangalore, April 9, 2015: Flipkart, India's leading e-commerce marketplace, has tied-up up with the Dabbawalas of Mumbai for last mile delivery to customers. This association is an effort to explore newer delivery channels and opportunities by partnering with this unique community of experts.

The Dabbawalas have been in the profession of transporting lunch boxes with absolute precision for more than 120 years. They are a huge inspiration on how to conduct business without any paper or administrative back-up to keep the costs down.

Commenting on the association, Neeraj Aggarwal, Sr. Director - Last Mile Delivery, Flipkart, said The Dabbawalas of Mumbai are one of the most reliable and trusted brands in the city. Their unique delivery system has been smooth, reliable and has survived the test of time even under extreme conditions that are atypical to a city like Mumbai. We are partnering with them and leveraging this unique expertise to enhance our last mile delivery capabilities.

In the initial stage of association, as a partner to eKart, the Dabbawalas (with one union at this stage) will collect Flipkart marketplace shipments from the delivery hubs and deliver it the customers- while picking their dabbas. Currently, a partner just for last mile deliveries, the Dabbawalas will not be interacting with the sellers at this stage. The initial pilot will be for prepaid orders - getting rolled out for COD deliveries as the association expands.

Watch the Dabbawalas share their views on this association.

On-Demand Logistics

In another attempt to break-away from the traditional operations heavy logistic method, Flipkart recently launched a crowdsourced delivery option which aims to connect local sellers and buyers with the help of voluntary delivery personnel, reducing the order to delivery timeline drastically.

These delivery personnel are on-boarded onto a specialized Flipkart delivery program post extensive

This process helps reduce the delivery process checks by enabling these delivery personnel to directly collect the package from the local seller and deliver it to the buyer, managing to reduce the order to delivery time to as little as three to four hours.

This pilot, currently operational only for Bangalore sellers and customers, should ideally see higher conversions for sellers as well. The service is currently available for shipments of less than Rs. 5000 value in Bangalore.

If you're planning to shop online, leave it all to your ever-loyal thumb. That's the key message in Flipkart's latest campaign. Thumbthing' campaign gives a creative twist to Flipkart's mobile app, focusing on the shoppers thumb as the central character.

The humorous campaign that goes live today conveys the ease of mobile shopping and how a delightful experience is literally at the tip of your angootha. It brings alive the fact that shopping is more fun when it can be done from anywhere and at any time a shopper wants from your home, at the gym, at a party.

With more and more Indians both in metros and non-metros accessing internet through mobile, this digital marketing campaign attempts to engage with newer customers through fun, quirky content, social media contests and merchandise.

Today well over 70% of traffic to Flipkart comes via the mobile app and majority of these shoppers most of who are first time customers are from tier II III cities. With increase in internet penetration, adoption of smartphones and lower data costs, smaller cities are more active online than ever which shows that m-commerce is poised to grow tremendously in the next 6 - 12 months.

Commenting on the launch of this campaign Mausam Bhatt, Senior Director Mobile Marketing, Flipkart, said With the Do Thumbthing campaign our focus is to make the Flipkart mobile app the medium of choice when it comes to shopping online. The various elements of this campaign videos, games, contests, special app offers will help us generate buzz about the Flipkart Mobile App amongst the younger audience. We are confident that this digital campaign with its fresh approach will establish an instant connect with the new generation of customers, and encourage them to experience online shopping the mobile way.

Do Thumbthing watch the first of our videos here

Bangalore, March 10, 2015: Flipkart, India's largest e-commerce marketplace announced the launch of its home category today.

With over 5 lakh products and 1000+ brands all available at Flipkart.com, this category will offer an exhaustive selection under furnishing, lighting, household items and DIY tools to customers.

Aiming to be the destination for end-to-end home styling solutions, Flipkart's new category will offer a range of national and international brands at great prices.

Flipkart marketplace, which has the most extensive network in the country, will provide an avenue for artisans and entrepreneurs in the home space to reach out to a wider audience base with a huge range of new-age, contemporary and ethnic products.

What can customers expect from this category?

• Exclusive introductory offers on top of the line brands like Bombay Dyeing, Portico, Bosch, Prestige, Hawkins, Philips, Eveready etc.
• Extensive range of items like furnishing, glassware, marble items, cotton and steel/bronze products
• Authentic and high-quality products directly from manufactures in different regions Jaipur, Salem, Tirupur to name a few
• Five lakh products and over 1000 brands across all household categories including furnishing, décor and lighting

Commenting on this, Ankit Nagori, SVP - Marketplace, Flipkart, said, Currently the online home market stands at Rs.1400 crore and this is one of the categories that has a lot of potential, but has been largely untapped by e-commerce players. We intend to be the ultimate destination for home product shoppers, offering buyers a unique shopping experience, enabling them to browse, compare, review and make purchases effortlessly.

Ankit further added, We will be introducing additional products in this category very soon which will enable us to further expand our offerings to our customer base. Backed by our superior supply chain capability, we are positive that we will transform the way shoppers indulge in this category."

Leveraging Flipkart's logistics, sellers will be able to reach to all parts of India and customers will be able to get authentic products from every region in India.

Bangalore, January 2015: Flipkart, India's largest e-commerce marketplace, announced that their platform will create over 10,000 millionaires in 2015. The year 2014 saw over 2000 sellers become millionaires through Flipkart sales. December 2014 alone saw over 500 sellers doing an average business of Rs. 10 lakhs each while 50 sellers did an average of Rs. 1 crore each.

With a year on year growth of close to 30%, apparels and consumer electronics categories have the most number of sellers who have crossed the millionaire mark followed by sellers of home décor, jewellery, handicrafts and large appliances. Nearly 60% of the millionaire sellers came from the metro cities (Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore) and the remaining are from the tier 2 and 3 cities. 2015 projections estimate that the numbers from the latter will double.

These numbers are a validation of Flipkart' focus on enabling and empowering sellers and entrepreneurs across India. Flipkart is taking several steps with the aim to help sellers create and expand their brands through:

What can customers expect from this category?

• Workshops/sessions
• SME training programs
• Working capital assistance
• Marketing support services like packaging, cataloguing to sellers

Commenting on this milestone Ankit Nagori, SVP- Marketplace, Flipkart said We are happy to announce that the Flipkart marketplace has helped create 2000 millionaires amongst the sellers on our platform in 2014. Over the last two years we have worked towards enabling sellers across the country to adopt the e-commerce marketplace model to grow their businesses. It's a huge motivation to see this tenfold growth amongst our sellers and the success they are seeing on our marketplace. We will continue in our efforts to better the Indian marketplace ecosystem so that sellers from even the most remote parts of the nation can benefit from this business model.

Ankit further added, We are confident that 2015 will see more sellers join the e-commerce ecosystem, thus creating at least 10,000 more millionaires within the Flipkart marketplace, especially from the tier 2 and 3 cities in India.

Last year Flipkart has also partnered with government bodies like Federation of Indian Micro and Small Medium Enterprises (FISME), and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Director General Employment Training (DGET), National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Ministry of Labour and Employment, Govt of India, to help Indian MSMEs leverage the online marketplace platform to scale their businesses by supplementing their employee requirements and upgrading their skills.

Bangalore, March 2015: Flipkart, India's largest e-commerce marketplace, announced that it will create over 2 million jobs through its marketplace and ancillary services in the year 2015. The rapid development of the e-commerce ecosystem in India will contribute towards the generation of employment across sectors. Last year, over half a million jobs were created in the e-commerce space alone.

Generating both direct and indirect employment, the marketplace model has opened up opportunities in metros and non-metro cities. This year, nearly 50-60% of employment will be created in tier II III cities. For instance cities like Jaipur and Baroda have already become the ancillary industry hubs (cataloging and packaging) and they will continue to generate more opportunities in the future.

Sellers will also play a vital role in creation of jobs across India -- sellers of home products, apparels, mobile accessories and small appliances will generate the maximum employment. In fact, the growth and expansion of their businesses will generate a minimum of 20-25 jobs per seller this year.

E-commerce empowers every artisan/entrepreneur to explore this platform to expand and grow their business. As the business of local artisans increase, the demand for manpower will increase too.

For example: With the rise of SME's adopting the online marketplace model, the ancillary and support services industry will see a 30-40% growth. 60% of the employment will be generated in logistics and warehousing alone.

Ankit Nagori, SVP Marketplace, Flipkart said, In the recent times, e-commerce has emerged as one of the key drivers of Indian economy. This industry has contributed a lot towards generation of employment opportunities along with enabling SME's and local artisans. Sellers on our marketplace have been directly responsible for driving employment within their own communities. In fact, e-commerce support facilities like merchandizing, buying, packaging and cataloging have generated more than 75,000 jobs in the last one year.

Ankit further added, Currently, we offer a range of SME training programs across 20 cities in association with Ministry of Labour to train and guide interested people helping them upgrade their skills and chart out their careers in industries that they choose to enter. We plan to scale up this to 40 cities in the next 6 months. Going by past trends, we are confident that Flipkart will generate close to 2 million jobs this year.

In keeping with its aim to generate more employment, the Flipkart SME training program will contribute towards generating well-trained employees for this industry. This initiative will provide training that encourages manufacturing and creates future employment. These courses are available for the following entities -

• SME Owners
• SME Employees
• Potential Entrepreneurs
• eMarketplace Service Providers (Cataloging and Photo Shoot Providers)

Bangalore, January 2015: West Bengal is the largest seller hub for Flipkart in the eastern part of the country. 2014 saw the seller base grow by 10-15% in this region. This number is expected to double in 2015.

Jewellery, apparels and leather products are the top selling categories catering to 60% of the demand in this region. The market demand for smaller categories like home furnishing and handicraft products is expected to grow this year too.

As a part of a larger effort to empower small and medium sellers and entrepreneurs, Flipkart has joined hands with EPCH (Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts), CLE (Council for Leather Exports) and ILPA(Indian Leather Products Association) to organize workshops on How to grow your business online with the regional seller community.

These interactive workshops will focus on:

• Seller on-boarding processes
• Return policies and serviceability
• Commission structure
• Expected standard of quality for products
• Marketing support(cataloguing and packaging services) offered for the listed products in order to maintain and enhance quality

Commenting on this partnership, Ankit Nagori, SVP- Marketplace, Flipkart said West Bengal is known for its Dhakai sarees, leather accessories and handicrafts products and home to over 15000 local artisans and entrepreneurs. Our aim is to empower them to explore the marketplace model and train them on how grow their customer base and business exponentially. We see a lot of potential in the sellers of this region and it's one of our key markets. Our partnership with EPCH, CLE and ILPA will help us reach out to a wider set of sellers and educate them about the benefits of selling online.

Ankit further added, Last year, we saw 30-40 sellers in West Bengal become millionaires just through the business they got on Flipkart. We are confident that 2015 will see at least another 1000 more sellers joining us from this region to become part of the Indian e-commerce ecosystem.

Adil, Owner, ADL International a 26 year old seller on Flipkart, said, My leather and travel accessories brand has seen an immense growth since August 2014 when I started selling on Flipkart. This platform has helped me grow my business along with connecting to the largest customer base in the country. Today, I get over 250 orders a day as compared to the sales of 20 wallets a day just six months back. I am thrilled to be a part of this success story and look forward to expanding my business as well as my manufacturing facility.