Amazon trying hard, but still a second fiddle to Flipkart

Photo credit:Pixabay.

Looks like Flipkart’s tantrums over demanding preferential treatment for homegrown startups against global players like Amazon are ill-founded.

According to the quarterly Indian E-tailing Leadership Index, Amazon still plays second fiddle to Flipkart, which has been ranked number one for the fourth straight quarter in 2016.

Flipkart retained its top spot with the same score – 97 – as last quarter. Brand recall for Flipkart saw a slight uptick, backed by better product diversity and competitive pricing. But its post-delivery experience – such as refunds and returns – declined, the survey found.

Amazon remains a very close second, with a marginal decline in brand recall. For the quarter ending December, Amazon India conceded some ground to Flipkart, with the retailer losing some points on brand recall and post-delivery experience. Its score came down by two points from the quarter ending September.

See: Amazon is closing in on Flipkart. Jeff Bezos describes how he got there

Other gainers

In the three months ending December, however, the biggest gainer in popularity was not Flipkart or Amazon.

It was Paytm. The digital wallet smartly promoted its product riding on the government’s demonetization move.

The Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led company’s score went up significantly to 82, from 75 in the last quarter.

Amazon may have to try harder to place itself in the coveted ace position.

While Paytm gained from the phasing out of high-value notes, ecommerce players suffered a setback as a cash crunch crippled cash-on-delivery payment, which accounts for a significant chunk of their business.

Snapdeal also improved its scores on the index, benefiting from its partnership with Paytm’s smaller rival Freecharge.

But the real tug of war is between Flipkart and Amazon.

Amazon inching closer?