Flipkart + Yahoo – The latest partnership on the block!

Flipkart has yet again proved that shying away from tie-ups and partnerships to aid in the way forward is not their thing. From exclusive product launch tie-ups to introducing its own brands, the ecommerce biggie has led the way in accumulating as large a customer base as possible.

The latest bit of news doing the rounds is the Flipkart-Yahoo tie-up; Yahoo India’s homepage will host a direct gateway to the Flipkart portal. There won’t be a separate tab to show this, but the option would be available under the Shopping tab.

The products and shopping experience is quite similar to the actual Flipkart portal with similar product offerings in electronics, apparel, home furnishing, books, kitchen appliances etc.

Why the tie-up?

Talking about the partnership, Gurmit Singh, Managing Director of Yahoo India, said, “Online shopping is seeing increasing adoption with users in India. People are spending a significant time on the Internet searching for products and deals. Flipkart is a market leader in Indian e-commerce, with a huge marketplace and an exciting range of products. With easy access to Flipkart directly from the Yahoo homepage, we believe that the millions of users who visit the Yahoo network daily will now enjoy not only premium content, but also an exciting shopping experience.”

And what’s Flipkart take on it? Online Marketing Sr. Director Mausam Bhatt said, “At Flipkart we are always looking for innovative ways of engaging the customer. Flipkart and Yahoo are both market leaders in their own space – and in a market where people are increasingly consuming content on digital platforms, a partnership like this helps bridge content and commerce to enhance the product discovery and purchase cycle for online shoppers.”

How will the tie-up help?

Everyone wants news everyday- Yahoo fills this need. Online shopping is the most popular activity with people now – Flipkart takes care of this. By joining hands, the market leaders will enable people to shop on Flipkart while they are accessing news on Yahoo.

No doubt this would add to Flipkart’s already bludgeoning customer base. Also, this would help in tackling the competition from other players like Snapdeal and Amazon by adding one more avenue to gain customers from. Flipkart is constantly innovating to stay on top of the game with new categories, shopping experiences, value added services etc.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to know who approached whom first?