The real reason might need not be #flipkart looking to go for #IPO . It might be #walmart looking an exit route and maybe pushing the management to go for #IPO which is the only possible way to exit with some profits.
Any E-com companies that are trying to gain customers and their loyalty by giving offers can never succeed. The best example for trying the best in e-com industry as far as I have seen is Vaitheeswaran K without burning outsider money
Strategically all digital companies in India still following outdated models. Their best bet is to copy whatever the western companies do. Most of the digital startups in India are just clones copying what the original counterpart does.
But they forget that the Indian culture, mindset is different from the western culture and mindset.
The land for example in US is huge and this increases the travelling time for the customers to reach the stores. This was well used by super market concept which saved the travelling time for the customers and they can shop everything under on roof.
In India, people does not even have space to walk and most of the areas are congested and the people live at close proximity.
The kirana stores are almost there in every street. #walmart or any stores can do nothing to make these shops shut down. The behavior of Indians is extremely different to that of western counterparts. Indians have a good connect with their local kirana shops. Its true that because of offers people tend to buy from online. But that will not give a connect with them to these companies. Their loyalty will always be with their local vendors. Once the offers drain, they will completely shift to their local vendors.
Indians do not like to stock things like the western people. This is because, the distance between their home to the nearby kirana store is just a foot away. Maximum distance will be 40 to 50 meters from their house. But in US , the distance will be huge and they will have to travel by car.
Hence the real reason for this IPO plan might be a push from Walmart which is a sensible move as this is the only way for the company to exit. Also, Walmart with their huge experience did a mistake in investing in flipkart. They could have started their own brand under https://walmart.in just like Amazon India does.
This will also be beneficial to Walmart as they can move their technology team to India thereby saving huge cost through using the cheap labor available in India.
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