E-commerce

Flipkart’s tricky math of wooing budget shoppers

Pranav Balakrishnan

June 30, 2025 | 14 Min Read

The Walmart-owned ecommerce giant is betting it can chase India’s price-sensitive masses and profitability at the same time, but its strategy of slashing fees and controlling seller pricing is creating fresh tensions

Key Takeaways

Flipkart faces a dual challenge: sustaining growth while moving toward profitability.
With quick commerce drawing away top-tier users, Flipkart is refocusing on the next wave of shoppers by expanding marketplace access to new and smaller sellers
This shift is driving growth but also requires a fundamental overhaul of its marketplace model—one that has unsettled some long-time sellers.
The stakes are high: without these changes, Flipkart risks ceding its leadership to Meesho, which is rapidly closing the gap in user reach.

Kalyan Krishnamurthy stands at the helm of India’s biggest ecommerce success story, yet he knows the toughest bit lies ahead. Flipkart, the company he leads as CEO, is said to have captured nearly half of the market and pushed past Amazon in a bruising decade-long fight. But winning the battle for India’s rich shoppers was just the start.

The broader ecommerce sector is slowing down, with quick commerce platforms stealing high-value customers who want their orders delivered in 10 minutes. Flipkart’s own quick commerce venture, Minutes, lags behind rivals like Blinkit and Zepto. Add to that Flipkart is still some distance away from profitability even after nearly two decades in business, and the long-promised public listing is getting pushed back, and you know why Krishnamurthy may not be celebrating just yet.

“You have to grow and at the same time make profits, it is conflicting and tricky,” said a Flipkart executive who requested anonymity.

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