Flipkart continues to aim for further dominance in the e-commerce sector by scouting for mobile-focused companies that it plans to acquire by the end of this year. This will be a move by the company to strengthen its infrastructure and capabilities to be one step ahead of its competitors.
“Overall, we feel that the startup ecosystem is growing very rapidly and most innovation is on the mobile platform, so we are very actively looking at every opportunity for talent purposes,” said Mukesh Bansal, head of Flipkart’s commerce platform and chief executive of its fashion arm Myntra.
Flipkart has been on a buying spree since the beginning of the year. In January, it bought a stake in auctions start-up WeHive Technologies. In March, it acquired ad network AdIQuity while in April, it bought mobile marketing automation platform Appiterate.
“Overall, the search paradigm will change… We will not use a language search or a browse-in feature,” Mukesh Bansal said.
Myntra, whose 90% traffic comes through its app, is on its way to shut down its website and become app-only. The fashion retailer is further aiming at 5 million app downloads in the next three to four months.
Flipkart on the other hand is trying to venture into new business categories, one of them being groceries. According to CEO Sachin Bansal, mobile phones and geo-location will play a vital role in making the company a one-stop shop that includes daily and monthly purchases.
