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Comment by jestinjoy1 | Hacker News Reader

Indian here. Will give you an idea of whats happening here in India. This online sellers got an impact only 2-3 years back. Now its like local government are formulating rules to curb online sales. This is in part fueled by the influence of local sellers.

Now people have moved to online stores for buying things, with local sellers feeling the heat.

First it was thought that Amazon entry to India will bury Flipkart. Not it seems Amazon is in trouble. Things looks like going in the same way as of China.

Flipkart started by IIT'ans the brightest minds of India. They recruit from top tech schools of India with hefty packages. They have a nice site and customer care. They also bought rival in Apparels, Myntra

There is no reason one shouldn't buy from Flipkart.

*http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/society/keralas-o...

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>They recruit from top tech schools of India with hefty packages.

They are not among the best paying companies.

>There is no reason one shouldn't buy from Flipkart.

Except you are not buying from Flipkart. You are buying through Flipkart. They moved to a market place model and quality has gone done since.

> Now people have moved to online stores for buying things, > with local sellers feeling the heat.

Totally agree. Our shopping habits have changed drastically over the last year. Trips to the local stores have gone down from twice a week, to once on alternate weekends for specific items. We use a combination of online retailers, and were very happy to see Flipkart buy Myntra. Wondering if they would also like to gobble up more with the additional funding they get.

Stretching the online story further, I always wondered if it makes sense for Flipkart to take over an online book library, like JustBooks. They could ship every book with a note saying "If you liked reading this book, here's how to buy a copy from us". Flipkart does have much better quality of service than JustBooks!

I'm not sure if they can compete with Amazon. They're losing money and competing with Amazon which has deeper pockets.

Right now, their prices are higher and I can find (and have found) better deals on either Amazon or Snapdeal. Amazon has always delivered faster and the sellers are all the same on these sites now.

    Not it seems Amazon is in trouble.

I think Flipkart is in real trouble here. Amazon can discount for long and eat losses (that's what they have always done) and though Flipkart has good ideas, they have made really strange moves (making a Tablet? Infibeam tried that back in 2011. Didn't work.)

> Right now, their prices are higher and I can find > (and have found) better deals on either Amazon or Snapdeal

I have the opposite experience. I check prices over a few days before buying, and Flipkart always comes ahead. Permanently gave up on Snapdeal after returning a pair of shoes (only one shoe in the box!), then its replacement (wrong size), and then again its replacement (wrong model).

Agree. Now a days I read the reviews on Flipkart and buy the product in Amazon.in. The price difference is significant and most of the time Amazon.in has free delivery while I have to pay extra in Flipkart.

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