Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India
This Case presents the Internet retail battle in India among the e-commerce giants Flipkart, Amazon, and Snapdeal. The domestic player Flipkart had been a dominant player and was followed by Snapdeal until the global player Amazon entered in 2013. The competitive dynamics were focused on the marketplace model, basic logistic and delivery, and customer satisfaction. With the new regulations and technology disruption in the recent years, the competitive landscape shifted to private labels, artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics, and omni-channeling. As the competition got more and more intense, Flipkart - the first home-grown e-tailor- was determined to be the market leader.
Swot Analysis of "Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India" written by Rainny Shuyan Xie, Vijay Sethi includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Flipkart Snapdeal facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competition, Economics and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Flipkart Snapdeal, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Flipkart Snapdeal operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Flipkart Snapdeal
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Flipkart Snapdeal
Strengths Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Flipkart Snapdeal in Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Flipkart Snapdeal is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Flipkart Snapdeal in the sector have low bargaining power. Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Flipkart Snapdeal to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Flipkart Snapdeal digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Flipkart Snapdeal has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Flipkart Snapdeal has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Flipkart Snapdeal are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Analytics focus
– Flipkart Snapdeal is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Rainny Shuyan Xie, Vijay Sethi can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Flipkart Snapdeal has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Flipkart Snapdeal has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Flipkart Snapdeal to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Flipkart Snapdeal
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Flipkart Snapdeal does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Flipkart Snapdeal is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Flipkart Snapdeal is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Flipkart Snapdeal has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Flipkart Snapdeal has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Weaknesses Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India, it seems that the employees of Flipkart Snapdeal don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Flipkart Snapdeal is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Flipkart Snapdeal needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Flipkart Snapdeal to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Rainny Shuyan Xie, Vijay Sethi suggests that, Flipkart Snapdeal is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Flipkart Snapdeal has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Flipkart Snapdeal even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Flipkart Snapdeal is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Flipkart Snapdeal supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Flipkart Snapdeal vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Flipkart Snapdeal has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India HBR case study mentions - Flipkart Snapdeal takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Flipkart Snapdeal has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Flipkart Snapdeal has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Opportunities Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India are -
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Flipkart Snapdeal can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Flipkart Snapdeal can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Flipkart Snapdeal has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Flipkart Snapdeal to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Flipkart Snapdeal can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Strategy & Execution segment.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Flipkart Snapdeal to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Flipkart Snapdeal to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Flipkart Snapdeal to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Flipkart Snapdeal can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Flipkart Snapdeal operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Flipkart Snapdeal can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Flipkart Snapdeal can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Flipkart Snapdeal can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Flipkart Snapdeal has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Flipkart Snapdeal can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Flipkart Snapdeal can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Flipkart Snapdeal can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Flipkart Snapdeal is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India, Flipkart Snapdeal may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Flipkart Snapdeal needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Flipkart Snapdeal has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Flipkart Snapdeal needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Flipkart Snapdeal high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Flipkart Snapdeal can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Flipkart Snapdeal with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Flipkart Snapdeal in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Flipkart Snapdeal business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Flipkart Snapdeal.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Flipkart Snapdeal will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Increasing wage structure of Flipkart Snapdeal
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Flipkart Snapdeal.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Flipkart vs. Amazon vs. Snapdeal: Winner-Take-All Battle in India is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Flipkart Snapdeal needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
