To start with, this isn’t a rant about how I didn’t get a discounted product of my choice. It’s more of a birds eye view of why this marketing campaign could prove to be one of Flipkart’s worst nightmare, and why the timing of the mistake couldn’t have been worse. The poster child of the Indian startup scene experienced first hand that whoever said “No Press is Bad Press” was absolutely wrong, especially if it’s on social media.

Long time back when I first logged on to the internet, I still remember the Rediff’s and Indiatimes shopping of those days who did e-commerce when there was no e-commerce (or the buzz). They had the first mover’s advantage which they never capitalized on, and they still do business the same way as they did in the 90s, and probably the same volume as of 90s. Any guesses why they are dying?

What Flipkart painstakingly did over the years other than selling items online (which any Tom, Dick and Harry can do in today’s times) - they created TRUST! They made the average Indian believe that they can purchase something online, and that thing will arrive at their doorstep the next day! They did it for years, day in and day out, few people at a time. They did it for a few, who told others, who then joined in with the same expectations, which were then met as well. They grew multifold, but they still did it, while other fly by night operators came in, threw around VC money and went away. There could have been some goof-ups that are a natural consequence of scale, but overall it was an atmosphere of trust around Flipkart which I believe is the biggest currency that Flipkart has earned until date. They nurtured the ecosystem and enabled an average skeptical Indian to buy online.

On this given Monday they lost a lot of it. For two days straight my Facebook feed was filled with rants around how items disappeared from people’s cart, how they received emails from Flipkart that they won’t receive the item they purchased, how the prices were escalated a few days back to make room for the offers, and what not! This was the worst Flipkart PR I have ever witnessed in the past 7 years, and everyone was talking about them, and I didn’t hear the positives. May be my sample space is skewed, but I heard bad things everywhere. Even the news that said that they achieved the $100 million sales target in 10 hours felt more like a cover up to say that we didn’t f#$k up.

In the past when I didn’t find discount coupons for Flipkart (via google search), I may not have a feeling of instant gratification, but deep down I knew that these are an honest set of folks who have listed a fair price, and I wouldn’t get anything better (and reliable) elsewhere. These are not like the Myntra’s of today (I understand it’s owned by Flipkart now, but it’s still a different entity) who have a 50% off on a daily basis with bogus coupons being sent to me over SMS. These are not like the Snapdeal’s who have the money to give a front page advertisement in TOI, but not the technical muscle to handle the load which arrived as a result, even with disabled filters, and likes. More often that not, I would click that ominous “BUY” button without much thought. But that thing changed this given Monday with all the offers, fooling around and hoopla. The currency of trust faced a significant devaluation.

Now where does Amazon fit in all of this? If I was Jeff Bezos, this would be a dream come true scenario for me. I’ve just joined in, with deep pockets ($2 billion in the short run) which I showed off while riding an Indian truck, and my biggest and only competitor just goofed up. I have an already scheduled sales event, which is much larger in size (10th to 16th October), with all the marketing money behind it. I have the technical muscle to do it well (Amazon even sells that infrastructure as a service -AWS), and have successfully done it in the past (in other countries). If I do it well this time, there is no going back! If I do it extraordinarily well, given the deep pockets I have and the deals I can afford, then that may be a different story altogether for a country already obsessed with foreign brands. Amazon, here is your chance! If you are successful at this, it will be more about the last man standing a few years from now, and I believe that will be a game that you would love to play. For the offer centric Indian consumer, there is no such thing as brand loyalty. At least it doesn’t come into play unless the prices are the same ;)

Though the good news is that Flipkart seems to have taken note and has issued a public apology for the same. Being humble and ready to learn is the best thing you can do in difficult times. Shit happens, but what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. Hopefully it’s the latter. Personally, over the next few years I would want to see Flipkart being a much more powerful player in the multi billion $$$ Indian ecommerce space as compared to Amazon, but the sad news is that the world doesn’t care, and the world ain’t fair. If Amazon capitalizes hard on the beginner’s luck, then it will be more like that I and Mom worked hard for 7 hours to prepare a lavish supper, and the neighbor’s kid came in and had it.