Flipkart’s wholesale arm revenue growth comes down by 16%

Homegrown e-commerce major Flipkart’s wholesale arm - Flipkart’s India has witnessed 16 per cent slowdown in sales growth during 2016-17 fiscal as compared to previous FY. The wholesale arm posted a revenue of Rs 15,264 crore ($2.37 billion) in the last fiscal from Rs 12,818 crore in the previous FY, reveals RoC filing.

The aforementioned number implies a growth of 18 per cent in revenue from Flipkart India. Importantly, in the previous fiscal (2015-16), the wholesale arm had registered growth of 34 per cent.

The development was first reported by financial daily Mint.

Flipkart had observed a jump of 43% in gross merchandise value (GMV) for the six months ended 30 September, according to a financial report from Naspers, which is also one of the largest shareholders in the Bengaluru-based company.

However, the investment firm did not disclose the exact GMV of the e-commerce company. The report outlined that Flipkart’s share of monthly GMV stood at roughly 58% in June this year, up from 45% in June 2016.

Flipkart disputed aforementioned figures later and clarified that the figure cited by Naspers included ‘a time lag’. It claims that its sales grew by 80% or more during April-September period.

Meanwhile, Amazon’s wholesale unit reported revenue of Rs 7,047 crore in FY 2016-17 with multifold growth. 

Amazon had witnessed over 105% growth in revenues in India in the fiscal year 2017. Amazon Seller Services, which earns through commissions, advertisements and shipping fees, registered a growth of 41% in FY17 with a revenue of Rs 3,128 crore.

Flipkart is yet to file complete revenue details at Registrar of companies (RoC).

Since the beginning of this year, Flipkart has shown resilience and made a comeback under the leadership of Kalyan Krishnamurthy. Last year, it had lost market share to rival Amazon.

Flipkart’s share of festive season sales increased to 50 per cent from 45 per cent last year, capturing much of the market. Amazon’s market share during the festive sales period is estimated to have remained unchanged at 35 per cent.