With the commencement of Digital India campaign in 2015, if there is one industry that has taken center stage in India, it is e-commerce. Online marketplaces are changing the way India shops. E-commerce in our country is a multibillion-dollar industry, Flipkart is one of the frontrunners in this business.
Initial strategy of Flipkart was to tap the customers from the metro cities, very soon they realized that need to penetrate the larger market space i.e. tier-II and tier-III cities/towns in India or market stagnation will happen very soon.
But there were significant amount of challenges faced by Flipkart like changing the mindset of people, getting people close to technology and E commerce platform.
Flipkart came up with a new initiative called Flipkart Assisted commerce or Flipkart Authorized partners which later was renamed as Flipkart Buyzone.
The objective of the program is to increase customer base of Flipkart in tier-II and tier-III cities/towns. Physical Evidence and trust plays a pivotal role in buying process in these cities/towns. Flipkart had framed its program around this and appointed Authorized partners in all small cities so that the local customer gets a local connect and increase the trust and confidence for Flipkart.
Flipkart has onboarded thousands of general trade stores in over 500+ Tier II and Tier III cities in 20 states in India and are designated as Flipkart partners. These partners serve as an expert and give best purchase decision within the budget range. Partners at these general trade stores have been especially trained to help users to buy through Flipkart App for their favorite smartphone, home appliances or electronics. Partners will hand hold through the entire shopping process and ensure that users make the right purchase within the budget range. The customer can take partners’ help during the entire process from ordering the right item till the item gets delivered to the customer address.
Flipkart have onboarded the partners based on the below factors:
- Popular stores in the smaller towns which are running for minimum two years.
- Stores which are having good reputations and having significant amount of customer base.
- Influencers or knowledgeable person whom local people have faith and trust.
Process:
- Users will Visit a general store registered under Flipkart’s Authorized partner near their locality to shop for electronics, mobile phones or large appliances without any apprehension.
- Ask queries to the partner — this could include help with creating a Flipkart account, identifying the best product as per their budget, or understanding different modes of payment, current offers running and check reviews too.
- Purchase decision is made, and user orders the item through Flipkart App.
- Delivery of the item to the customer place.
Problem Statement
Flipkart Corporate team was travelling and conducting the town halls in different regions for training retailers. But they were not able to reach out to the target audience in a right way and also the cost was very high as local connects were missing. Flipkart was looking for a solution provider who could provide high impact training in hundreds of towns across the country on a one on one model to its partners.
Channelplay’s Solution
Flipkart appointed Channelplay to conduct the training of retailers because Channelplay has vast reach across country and has pool of trainers spread all over the country.
Channelplay also has prior experience of conducting such kind of trainings in the past for other major brands with high success rate.
Channelplay has designed the training modules for the Flipkart Assistance team. The training was decided to be conducted as one-on-one (In person training) with defined timeframe, 30 minutes to 45 minutes per training.
Channelplay has designed three different training modules namely Beginner modules, Repeater modules and Improvement modules for different segments of partners. The trainers update all the details in real time post completion of the trainings which can be tracked real time by the Flipkart team.
Beginner Modules- The beginner module is for the newly on-boarded partners under the program. The objectives of this module is to teach the process to follow, how to get the incentives and Dos and don’ts of the Program.
Repeater Modules: This module is for the partners who are currently doing decent work. The objective of this module is to give the fine tuning, which is required for the partners, to resolve the query and most importantly to motivate and teach the team how to get more payouts from the program.
Improvement Modules: This module is for the partners who were active in the past but became dormant participants recently. The objective of this modules is to know the reason why they are not actively participating in the program and to take speedy action on the same.
Channelplay followed TTT (Train The Trainer) Method. Channelplay training teams have intensively brainstormed and designed the modules. Once the modules were finalized, Channelplay had conducted the mock interviews and shortlisted the trainers from their pool of trainers across India. Post shortlisting of the trainers Channelplay had Trained them regarding the program.
Process Flow of Training:
- Flipkart shares the list of training needs to be conducted in 10-15 days advances.
- Channelplay assigned the training to the best trainers in that geography.
- Trainers connect with the Flipkart assistance partners for an in-person meeting for conducting the training.
- Trainers visit the respective store and complete the training and update all the details in the App which can be real time tracked by the Flipkart Corporate team.
Outcome
QoQ there is an increase in the user base in the tier-II and tier-III cities/towns for Flipkart. All the result reciprocates in the big billion day sales from non-metros this year. Channelplay has successfully completed more than 1300+ trainings under this program within the specific timelines and covered 15 states and 106 cities.
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