Flipkart wants top fashion brands to dance to its new tunes. Do brands have a choice?

Daybreak

Flipkart, the Walmart owned e commerce giant, is on an overdrive to achieve profitability to realise its dreams of going public.

To do this, it has tasked its category managers in fashion and lifestyle with squeezing more business out of brand partners. In fact, Flipkart is also using its own Myntra to get better leverage with these brands. The list of brands Flipkart is negotiating with includes Nike, Adidas and Puma, Woodland, Casio, and the Indian fashion retail giant Aditya Birla Fashion Retail Limited (ABFRL).

Brands are resisting but they can only do so much because the kind of reach Flipkart gives them is unmatched. It has a registered customer base of more than 400 million.

Does this mean that these brands have to give in to Flipkart’s demands?