Flipkart taps mindsets rather than geographies

Flipkart, an Indian e-commerce company, reframed its understanding of key target audiences – and of Indian society in general – to better target its business.

Why it matters

In order to solve issues such as lack of trust and perceptions of low quality, Flipkart needed to understand customer behaviour in India’s burgeoning e-commerce market.

Recognising that the internet and economic and social liberalisation had changed Indian demographic assumptions, the research identified six different mindsets that exist across India’s geographies.

Takeaways 

• The six mindsets are: global mindset, urban aspirers, dislocated migrants, validation seekers, traditionalists, and insular consumers.
• Having recognised the educated, globalised and connected ‘global mindset’ group as a key target audience, qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to further segment it and understand its motivations and behaviours.
• These insights led to targeted interventions around search algorithms and personalisation, contributing to increases in consideration and market share.

Key quote

“Our in-depth work resulted in understanding that we have long departed from cohorts and segments, and emerged into consumer mindsets, which means they are agnostic to the geography and location” – Priyanka Bhargav, Senior Director, Brand Marketing & Head, Consumer Research & Insights, Flipkart. 

Read more in this ESOMAR paper: Flip the coin: Refreshing / rehauling / reforming the way we understand customer behaviour