Flipkart e-com arm controls losses by 30%, while wholesale incurs 8.5X loss in FY18

October has been an eventful month for Flipkart. It occupied the headlines in the beginning of the month with its Big Billion Days festive season sale and now when the month is ending, it makes headlines again with its RoC filings with MCA, revealing its financial performance in FY18.

The e-commerce arm of the company, Flipkart Internet Private Limited, has recorded a 35.8 per cent jump in revenue, going up from Rs 2,253.5 crore in FY17 to Rs 3,060.2 crore in FY18, as per Tofler report.

As far as losses were concerned the company managed to control the figure by 29.27 percent, making it Rs 1,159.4 crore in FY18 while it was Rs 1,639.3 crore in the previous fiscal.

This reduction in losses happened despite an 83.95 per cent increase in expenses from Rs 3,892.8 crore to Rs 4,219.6 crore in the span of one financial year ending March 2018.

As far as the wholesale arm of the company, Flipkart India, is concerned, the losses took an 8.5X leap going up from Rs 243.7 crore FY17 to Rs 2,062.6 crore in FY18. The revenue for the company soared by 40 per cent to Rs 21,600 crore.

Combined, the losses for these two units recorded a hike of 71 per cent from Rs 1,883 crore to Rs 3,222 crore in the latest fiscal year reported.

For Flipkart Internet, the major sources to earn its revenue are marketplace, collection, logistics and storage. These services also require a lot of monetary infusion, especially when it comes to managing major festive season sale like BBD.

In September this year, the Singapore-based parent entity of the company, Flipkart Marketplaces Pte. Ltd., infused Rs 3,462 crore to prepare the firm for helping it manage logistics, storage and collection and to achieve a target of highest ever GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) in Diwali sales.

In the Indian market, the firm fiercely competes with Amazon India when it comes to selling products online, especially in maintaining its supremacy in the smartphone sector, and in garnering higher GMV in both seasonal sales and throughout the year.

Going further, it would be interesting to see how these financials compare with Amazon India’s performance in FY18, and how Flipkart keeps on increasing its growth financially and market share-wise in its native market.