Flipkart is getting back to selling books

BENGALURU: Flipkart is trying to make a comeback in selling books, a fledgling category which was the starting point for India’s largest ecommerce player.

Even though Flipkart started off as a bookseller in 2007, the company’s primary focus over the years has been high-revenue generating categories like smartphones and fashion.

However, with customer acquisition and loyalty back on the forefront, books as a category is garnering the company’s focus. Flipkart has been remodelling its book offering strategy over the last six months by expanding its catalogue and doubling deliveries, said Nishit Garg, who heads this category for Flipkart. “We are investing in personalisation and recommendation to further drive consumer engagement in this category.”


Flipkart has doubled its catalogue of books to seven million titles over the last six months and has also partnered with publishers to stock books closer to the customers ensuring speedy deliveries. “Around 85% of our metro deliveries of books take place in two days,” added G arg. Although not too enthusiastic about e-books, the company plans to enable the offerings in the next 2-3 quarters. It is also unclear if Flipkart would look to launch an e-book reader to compete with rival Amazon’s Kindle.