Flipkart is planning to launch an advertising program that sellers can use to promote its products on the e-commerce website, reports NextBigWhat. Flipkart has confirmed this development to Medianama.
This ad program can help Flipkart create an alternate source of revenue for the website, while increasing the amount of time sellers might spend on Flipkart. It is not clear what model Flipkart will use for the program, but it is worth noting that it already displays ads on the product description pages. It had opened up its logistics service eKart to third-party sellers last month and with advertising it will have one more offering for sellers on its website.
Implementation: As of now, these are promotions being run by Flipkart on the homepage that uses Google DoubleClick for delivering the images. We however spotted an ‘ads‘ page on the website where the company says that brands can use the advertising platform to increase product awareness among the relevant shoppers. The company says that it shows sponsored product placements and content relevant to its users, but does not share any personal information with the brands. It needs to be noted that the company has a treasure trove of information on its users and it’s not clear how the company plans to use this data to help advertisers on its website.
It also has a contact form that sellers on the e-commerce platform can use to start advertising on the website. It asks for your contact details, brands you’re associated with and your budget. It did not mention any minimum mandatory advertising spend. I filled the form and submitted, but received an email a couple of minutes later stating that the mail was not delivered to the group as I may not have permission to post messages to the group. Flipkart seems to be using Google Groups for this as of now.
Till now, Flipkart has raised a total $541 million from five rounds, which includes a reported $150 million funding in August 2012, $20 million in June 2011, $10 million in June 2010 and $1 million in 2009. It competes against Amazon, Snapdeal and eBay among several others in India.
Competition: In India, eBay lets sellers posts ads on homepage and on category pages based on keywords at a CPM of Rs 100-150. It also offers interactive gutter ads, for a minimum guaranteed spend of Rs 5 lakh a day. Flipkart’s competitor Amazon offers multiple ad formats for advertisers in the US. It offers display ads next to product description and also allows marketers to offer promotions to people from a specific area for a campaign being run on Amazon.