In the past few years, E-commerce has evolved into a very large scale market in India. The credit of this goes to the Jio revolution brought at the time it was most needed. Flipkart is one of the first companies to start selling online products in India and today it has emerged into in company worth millions.
The first customer is always special for any business owner and recently Flipkart recalled the story of its first customer and how it all started. It was October 2007 when a man named V V K Chandra from Mahabubnagar ordered a book from Flipkart’s website. At that time, Flipkart was only focused on selling books. Chandra was a freelance web consultant and loved reading. He ordered John Wood’s memoir Leaving Microsoft to Change The World.
8 years ago, a man from Mahabubnagar bought a book online. Page 1 of the @Flipkart story http://t.co/km4Vaz1oDw pic.twitter.com/Tn0t4us5ap
— Flipkart Stories (@FlipkartStories) October 15, 2015
Before ordering from Flipkart, Chandra had tried finding the book from the offline stores in Hyderabad but it was not available anywhere. He had the habit of blogging about technology and the internet. Under one of his post, he had seen a comment with the link of the website- www.flipkart.com
The reply caught attention of Chandra and he instantly clicked on it. There he found out that the website sells books and delivers them all across the country. It was first of its kind site for Chandra as he hadn’t seen anything like this before.
Seeing the book in stock he ordered it by paying Rs 500. He had faith in Flipkart but was ready if this money got lost. He had to wait for a long time as the book was actually not available in stock. The co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal went to a great length to get this book and finally found it somewhere in Bangalore. They even mailed Chandra about it.
When Binny got the book a store in Bangalore it was flooding with torrential rains. Waterlogging and traffic are some common problems during rain in Banglore so Binny fought all of it but when Binny reached to the store he realized that he has left the wallet at his apartment. He went back, borrowed money from his roommate and went to the bookstore again.
He tried to find it from the offline stores in Hyderabad but it was not available anywhere. He had the habit of blogging about technology and the internet. Under one of his post, a user replied with the link of the website- www.flipkart.com
The reply caught is attention instantly and he clicked on it. There Chandra found out that the website sells books and port them all over the country. It was first of its kind site and Chandra hadn’t seen anything like this before.
So Chandra decided to give it a try. And seeing the book he needed in stock he ordered it paying ₹500. It was not a big deal for him and he was ready is this money is lost, but he had faith.
He had to wait for a long time as the book was actually not available with the totally unrelated co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal also. They went to a great length to get this book and finally found it somewhere in Bangalore. They even mailed Chandra about it.
When Binny went to get the book from the store Bangalore was flooding with torrential rains. Waterlogging and traffic are some common problems during rain so Binny fought all of it and when he reached to the store he realized that he has left the wallet at his apartment. He went back, borrowed money from his roommate and went to the bookstore again.
On October 31, 2007, the book was delivered to Chandra which reached him after the Kannada Rajyothsava, two days later. This was a complete story of how Chandra became the first-ever customer of Flipkart and history was created.
Also Read: 10 Rare Images That Show The Amazing Flipkart Journey
