How to Make a Website Like Flipkart: A Step-by-step Guide + E-commerce Statistics and Trends for 2023

Today, shoppers can buy everything from flower pots to smart home devices online. For a moment, consider your own purchasing behavior. You probably Google it first. Then you'll compare prices on Amazon and other e-commerce websites or online marketplace, check its availability, and place an order. Otherwise, you might see something in a brick-and-mortar store, but before purchasing it, you'll probably search online anyway. It turns out that having a fast, responsible, user-friendly website is no longer a luxury but a necessity. Every legitimate business needs one.

In this blogpost, we’ll explain how to build a website in the style of Flipkart. So, let's set the scene. We'll begin by explaining why it has become so popular, and then we'll explore the features and benefits of e-commerce Flipkart-type websites. Later, we’ll reveal some of the more notable statistics from e-commerce in 2023. We'll conclude with a step-by-step outline of the e-commerce website creation process, including the costs and time requirements. Let’s get started.

What is Flipkart and why is it so popular?

Flipkart has 100 million loyal customers and 80 million products in 80-plus categories. So, it connects consumers, sellers, merchants, and small businesses. Flipkart brings the convenience of online shopping to a vast audience.

It started with a simple idea in mind: two brothers and former Amazon executives wanted to create an ideal bookstore website. Despite an initial investment of just $5,600, it grew to $37.8 billion in 15 years. It sounds like a Cinderella story, doesn't it? Flipkart’s major competitor is Amazon, and the intense competition with other prominent e-commerce websites and multi-vendor marketplaces drives Flipkart to constantly improve its business. For example, they offer COD (Cash on Delivery), no-cost EMI, and easy returns. During the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the company did its best to ensure quick and safe delivery.

The benefits of building an e-commerce website like Flipkart

Why would it be necessary to build an e-commerce website like Flipkart? Honestly, you wouldn't unless you wanted to enter the market and offer something that people are willing to pay for. Anyone who does, though, will want that market reach. Here are three of the main benefits offered by websites in the Flipkart genre.

• Multiple vendor onboarding

As we’ll see, commission is the primary source of income for Flipkart. More vendors equate to greater product choices, more items ordered, and, ultimately, more commissions.

• Direct contact with customers

A website exists in order to be the singular intermediary between the customer and the seller. Users trust such a website as a way to buy products at lower prices while receiving various offers and discounts.

• Outreach

Your company, when it goes digital, is no longer limited by physical frontiers. Instead, it can be seen and used by millions of people around the globe.

The next section describes the features that characterize Flipkart-type websites.

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Key Flipkart features you shouldn't overlook

Building an e-commerce website is like serving two types of clients–Buyers and Sellers–at once. Let’s reveal what they need.

Features for Buyers

Businesses don’t have that many chances to make a mistake. Just one bad experience with a brand is enough for 32% of Americans to turn away, as the major consultancy PwC reports.

This makes great user experience and convenience not simply nice-to-have options but must-have ones for an online store. Consider the following features before launching your e-commerce website:

1. Convenient registration and authorization

This is the initial stage of the prospective user's interaction with the e-commerce platform, so it must be easy for customers. Registration can be based on a phone number, e-mail, or social network.

2. User profile and account settings

This section contains a record of all orders, customers’ payment info, addresses, and other information related to the user.

3. Product search as a way to connect buyers and sellers

Good product search matches users’ search keywords with the product. Nobody likes seeing “containers” when they're searching for “black pants,” right? Good product search makes this situation impossible while users are looking for a specific thing on an online marketplace. You can personalize search suggestions with Machine Learning (ML) and give the product search strong error tolerance for an uninterrupted user process.

4. Search filters

Filters help users specify their research and find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible. Filters depend strongly on the type of product they’re looking for. For clothes, for example, it’s mandatory to have filters such as color, size, price. For hardware, say laptops, it would be storage, RAM, or CPU. Always keep in mind what matters to your customers and how to make their journey simple and smooth.

5. Product page

The product page should contain all of the item-related information such as a detailed description, photos, videos, reviews, price, delivery options, stock details, EMI options, a question box, FAQs, etc.

6. Wishlists

We bet you have a couple of cases when you wanted to buy something but weren’t ready. So happens to many people. Adding wishlist functionality in the initial stage of e-commerce platform development will improve conversions in the features as it allows clients to find the items easily when they are ready to buy them.

7. A mobile-friendly (or mobile-first) website

In 2021, 31% of all retail e-commerce was generated via mobile devices. Approximately 51% of today’s online shoppers conduct purchases via phones. According to Statista, the total value of retail e-commerce sales worldwide is projected to grow to $6.5T in 2023. Here comes some more interesting stats:

• 47% of users expect a maximum page load of two seconds

• $2.6 B is lost by retailers each year because of slow-loading websites

• 75% of consumers judge a company's credibility by its website design

• 90% of consumers shop the competition after a poor user experience

Source: Findstack

One of the most frequent user scenarios goes like this: The clients may start looking for a product on a mobile device, then continue browsing and comparing items on a desktop. However, if they had a bad experience interacting with an e-commerce website on a mobile device, they are not likely to continue interacting with it.

8. A variety of secure payment options

According to Statista, credit cards and mobile wallets are the most popular payment methods in the United States. Since online payments are the heart of digital retail, the payment options must be robust, fast, safe, and secure.  Besides sticking with the most popular payment methods, it is very beneficial to add some preferred online payment options within your target audience.

9. Data security

SSL certificate, login authentication practices, firewall, and privacy policies are as important as an error-free backend and good UX since the number of cyber-attacks has increased. Data has become a new gold in the digital world overall, and especially in the e-commerce business that is involved in collecting and storing huge amounts of personal and sensitive data.

10. Shopping cart

e-commerce shopping carts simplify the purchasing process, just like physical ones. In the e-commerce industry, shopping carts not only “store” items but also accept payments and distribute information to third parties.

11. Returns and refunds

Millions of customers love Flipkart for its easy returns-and-refunds policy. This compensates for the fear that products won’t meet expectations or won’t be as good as in the description. A straightforward returns-and-refunds policy builds credibility and trust. It’s certainly an example to follow for many e-commerce websites around the world.

12. Shipping options

It’s better to offer several shipping methods, but they may vary in price. Today, the most common practice is to offer free shipping for orders over $X; for express delivery, you can charge an additional fee.

13. Featured products

Those are specific products grouped with labels such as “featured,” “trending" and “on sale” on your home page. Placing products in this group attracts customer’s attention to them. What’s the reason? Most users visit the home page first and what’s on it.

14. Live chat

It is a communication tool between buyer and seller; a place where they can interact in real-time and solve issues as quickly as possible.

15. Reviews

According to Statista, at least 70% of online shoppers typically read between one and six customer reviews before making a purchasing decision. So it goes without saying that giving users the possibility to leave and read reviews is a must for an e-commerce website.

16. High-quality photos and videos

Online shopping is different from going to brick-and-mortar stores in so many ways. Make sure clients can see the product from different angles and examine it in detail to help them with the choice.

The loading speed is important too. Approximately 40% of consumers will drop off if the images load slowly or not at all, according to Adobe. That said, high-quality and relevant images are one of the key components of e-commerce website success and popularity among buyers.

Features for Sellers

1. Seller’s profile

This section contains information about the number of completed orders, the reviews, and ranking. All of this promotes trust and builds credibility among current and potential customers as it makes the process much more transparent.

2. Dashboards with reports and analytics

Running a multi-vendor marketplace business is all about moving and adjusting and improving. The information such as buyers' demographics, revenue, best-selling products is vital for every business, and must always be easy to access. Prominent e-commerce websites work on the convenience of use for both parties—sellers and buyers.

3. Order’s management panel

With the complete information about the order, from adding it to the cart to its delivery.

4. Customer management

Knowing everything about your customers is the first step towards personalization. Such information like their preferences, search queries, and location will help you provide your clients first-class service and make them feel heard and appreciated.

4. SEO management

Traffic amount, search engine ranking, and other important metrics depend on SEO management. With a good SEO management section, you can set up URLs for products and categories, filling in meta titles and descriptions. All of this will make your platform visible in the digital world.

Buyers and Sellers are the yin and yang of the e-commerce market, which means that your online website must be fast, responsive, and convenient for both sides.

With online retail giants like Amazon, AliExpress, Alibaba, Walmart, eBay, and other well-known online marketplaces, is launching your website like Flipkart worth doing? The next section contains the e-commerce state of industry stats that paints a clear picture.

2023 e-commerce trends to inspire you

Covid-19 changed our lives forever. At least more people found out how fast, convenient, and secure online shopping is. Statista forecasts that 14.1% of all retail sales worldwide will continue growing to 22% in 2023; in the US alone e-commerce sales could exceed $740 billion by the next year. By 2040, up to 95% of sales will be conducted via e-commerce.

Do you wonder what will shape the future of e-commerce and most e-commerce websites? Let's find out. This part of the article reveals three trends that will define e-commerce in the coming years.

1. Personalization and Zero-Party Data

Many companies saw a big decrease in the effectiveness of their ads due to iOS 14.5 that asked people if they wanted to opt out of apps tracking them across the web. The only way companies can adapt to these changes is to collect data directly from their customers (zero-party data) and leverage it for personalized marketing. How to collect this data for your online store? You can use surveys, quizzes, conversational pop-ups, e-mail, and SMS marketing. In fact, this is a topic for another blog post.

2. Voice Shopping

Deloitte has predicted that, by 2023, people will be talking to bots more than humans.

Juniper Research has found that e-commerce transaction values via voice assistants will reach $19.4 B by 2023, rising from just $4.6 billion in 2021. What’s the reason? Because it makes buying the product simpler for customers.

3. Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) 

Trying out products online? Just like that, sitting on the couch? Augmented reality makes it (almost) possible, and consumers can view items from multiple angles. This feature was not (yet) adapted by many online stores, and that can help your e-commerce website stand out from the crowd.

How to build an e-commerce website like Flipkart  

Finally, we’re moving to the practical part. Consider this section as a guide to Flipkart-style cutting-edge web development.

1. Research

Want to create a match between customers and your business? Do rigorous research then to understand your niche. During this stage, you’ll gain priceless information about customer’s “pains” and their behavior, which will help you stay relevant and meet their expectations, and build a successful online marketplace in the end. 

Same applies to competitor research. Look at their strategies and features, try to understand what worked for them, and what did not. What for? To learn from their mistakes and save your time, money, and nerves. 

2. Hire a team

The team you use will consist of people who will build the heart of your multi-vendor marketplace. While many ready-made options such as Shopify or Magento are available on the market, they cannot guarantee personalization. In contrast, tailor-made solutions make it possible to build a website like Flipkart with a required feature list.

3. Choose a name

Be sure your website is memorable enough to stand apart from the crowd of competitors. When a brand name is memorable and easy to pronounce, it drives referrals. For an online marketplace and e-commerce website, think of something short and close to the purchasing process.

4. Domain and hosting

The hosting service must be secure, robust, simple to set up, and easy to access. DYN and GoDaddy serve e-commerce websites, so you can consider them. 

5. Design and development

Just like brick-and-mortar stores, websites should be attractive and provide customers with a nice shopping experience. The main strategy to follow to build a website like Flipkart are:

• Group products together

• High-quality content (photos, videos)

• Mobile-first design

• Personalization

• Purchase-process optimization

• Know and predict what your buyer is looking for

6. Proper payment-gateway selection

A reliable payment gateway ensures the safety of payments and allows your clients to pay directly on your website using debit cards, credit cards, and other payment options, like PayPal or Gift cards.

7. Testing

It goes without saying that any website development should be tested prior to launch. Nowhere could this be truer than in the case of an e-commerce site. Whenever pluralities of products or services are involved, the exchange of goods and funds will be involved too. So, none of it can be left to chance. Expert testing is essential as the means to ensure that your site can and will be trusted by users. 

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Recommended tech stack 

Website’s performance, stability, and scalability depend on the technology stack. That’s why it’s so important to choose the right one. There's no one-size-fits-all formula, however. Instead, the scope of your project will determine the requirements. Generally, the optimal tech stack for your project will comprise the most efficient tools. Below we list the approximate tech stack to build a website like Flipkart.

We won’t make a splash by saying that HTML, CSS, JavaScript are widely used for client-side software. 

The main backend technologies are Ruby, Java, Scala, Python, and PHP.

With the help of AWS DynamoDB, PostgreSQL, Redis, and MySQL services, you can develop a reliable database platform on which to store the required information about your e-commerce website. 

How does Flipkart make money?

Flipkart, in the fiscal year 2021, saw its revenue jump 25% above the previous term. Let’s take a look at their business model:

• Sellers list their products on Flipkart.

• A buyer orders an item from Flipkart.

• When payment is received, Flipkart notifies the seller about the order.

• The seller packs the order, and Flipkart organizes the safe delivery to the buyer.

• Flipkart then pays the seller after taking its commission.

It's as simple as that. Now, think about why all of those sellers and buyers come to Flipkart. There are a number of reasons for it: 

• Customer Login and Signup area

• 24x7 customer service

• Software application (dual interface)

• A wide selection of products 

• High-quality products and faster delivery with the Flipkart Assured badge

As we can see, Flipkart strives to provide great customer experience. 

What's the cost of an e-commerce website like Flipkart? 

The final cost depends on various factors such as the technology stack, scope of work, and region of development. Just look at the drastic differences among the hourly charges of developers in different regions:

As always, the final cost of an e-commerce website development depends on the project requirements. However, we can make a rough estimate here.

We don’t take QA or marketing into consideration here. Instead, the development phase is our focus. So, the total cost could start at $25,000. You can always send us the spec of your project to discuss the more precise cost of the development of your e-commerce website.

Conclusion

Is launching an e-commerce website taught? Yes. It’s all about understanding what clients need, what other multi-vendor marketplaces do, what’s trendy now and what’s not, constantly working on customer satisfaction. Is it worth doing? Definitely! The e-commerce in general and e-commerce websites continues its stratospheric growth as it hurtles toward the $760 billion mark in 2023.

Having a Flipkart-style website is a chance to attract customers and become a part of the e-commerce market. And we, at Yellow, will be glad to help you do so. Feel free to contact us to discuss your project.