Flipkart Apologizes For Its #BigBillionDay Goof Up | TechTree.com

Flipkart Apologizes For Its #BigBillionDay Goof Up

Founders say they will do everything to address the issues that led to loss in customer trust

 

Flipkart's ad blitz to promote its #BigBillionDay sale was matched by a wave of negative publicity, as disheartened customers took to social networks to voice their less than pleasant experiences of shopping on the site. As the first step in disaster management, founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal have made a public apology for the troubles many customers faced on October 6.

A mail sent out by the company yesterday, which was signed by the two founders, read, “Yesterday was a big day for us. And we really wanted it to be a great day for you. But at the end of the day, we know that your experience was less than pleasant. We did not live up to the promises we made and for that we are really and truly sorry.”

Flipkart claims 1.5 million people shopped through its site on October 6, but despite this achievement it became clear that many more were less than happy with the company's service. The unprecedented amount of traffic on the site led to several technical glitches, but there were more sinister issues such as a shady pricing strategy, out-of-stock issues and order cancellations.

Going forward what must Flipkart do?

The Big Billion Day sale mess up should serve as a turning point for the company. Flipkart's tactics of over promising isn't going to work anymore, and it should seek to better its customer relations rather than gloating over sales figures. In the mail, the founders have touched upon the importance of retaining a customers trust, and how it plans to restore the same after the fallout.

The e-commerce space in India is currently a big boxing match, where players like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal are more interested in competing with each other rather than serving customers. That's the fundamental flaw which has to be addressed in order for the online retail sector to grow, and while all fingers point at Flipkart right now, its rivals hands are plenty dirty.

Competition is great, but beating rivals merely on cost isn't the best or most sustainable way to grow. Flipkart has already rolled out services such as Flipkart First where users can avail of single day delivery for every purchase, by bearing a subscription cost. The company could look at offering several such benefits under services, locking in customers by creating true value for them.

If Flipkart is serious about mending its ways, we shouldn't see it gloating over a 50,000 odd cache of products being cleared out in mere seconds. Instead we should see a more humble approach where the focus is on customer satisfaction rather than the products themselves. How drastic will the change be? We can't really say, but the one thing that's clear is that Flipkart's position is fundamentally altered.


TAGS: Flipkart, Big Billion Day, sales, Social Network

 
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