Flipkart on Friday has announced a new store under its own private label business in India. Dubbed as Flipkart SmartBuy, the new store will give a stiff competition to its arch-rival Amazon’s Basics. SmartBuy will feature electronics accessories like Micro USB chargers, data cables with more products like Bluetooth speakers, power banks and headphones to be added soon. This is similar to what Amazon is offering through its Amazon Basics where it sells a host of electronics accessories like data cables, headphones, Apple-certified Lightning cables, laptop sleeves and bags, to name a few with an affordable price tag.
Although, the products are limited for the time being, but the company is planning to expand into 25-30 categories like personal care accessories and home plastics. “We are looking to address gaps in these categories. In areas where there aren’t many established brands, we expect our private labels to account for 70% of the sales in those spaces. And where big brands dominate, we hope to gain at least a 15% share with our private label,” Adarsh Menon, head of private brands for Flipkart told TOI.
The private labels products on Flipkart will be sourced globally from partners in China, India or Malaysia. This will help the company to get a better control over sourcing, pricing and quality of the products, and will further give better margins.
Flipkart is also planning to launch a second private label brand by March which will focus on different categories like retail furniture, home furnishing and decor.
Recently, Amazon has also announced its private label including Symbol and Myx meant for men’s wear and women’s ethnic clothing, and Solimo for small appliances and kitchenware category.