Desi Amazon in the making: Flipkart to sell furniture, own apparel brand

In 2007, Flipkart started as an online bookstore, but soonventured into movies, cameras, computers and mobile phones.

The Bangalore-based company is hailed as India’s largest e-commerce player now.

CEO and co-founderSachin Bansal still has more plans up his sleeve. Bansal’sbroad vision for his firm is to emulate his former employer, the world’s biggest e-tailer, Amazon. And the latest development proves that yet again.

According to a Times of India report today , Flipkart will nowstart selling big-ticket items like furniture, large-sized white goods like refrigerators and washing machines. What more? The company will also introduce its very own apparel brand.

With the likes ofUrban Ladder, Rocket Internet-backed FabFurnish, Pepperfry and Zansaar already in the fray,the online market for home furnishing and furniture is quite competitive in India, notes the ToI report. And now that theSwedish homeware giant Ikea is set to make an entry, Flipkart is likely to face a tough competition in the furniture selling business.

Flipkart had started selling apparel a year back, giving a run for money to Myntra and other fashion online stores. But now, it plans to go a step further and launch a private label.

But why did Flipkart start selling books if it had to sell washing machines? Bansal had once told DNA in an interview that books arethe easiest for a start-up to sell online.

“People don’t trust a new portal with Rs 5,000 for a mobile phone but they don’t mind buying a Rs 100 book. We are still very focused on books and will try to grow that faster than other segments,” he said.

With its products expanding, Flipkart is fast turning out to be India’s Amazon. But will it be able to take on Amazon?