Flipkart, the homegrown e-commerce giant has been looking to enter into the services sector. After launching its grocery delivery service multiple times, the company is now going to offer insurance products on its platform.
According to the documents filed with the Registrar of Companies, Flipkart will start selling insurance products on its platform. Initially, the products will be in general, life and health insurance. Later, it plans to venture into other categories, including motor insurance.
The company will launch this product after obtaining the regulatory approval from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority. IRDA regulations allow Flipkart to tie-up with up to three insurers under each of insurance category. It is expected to facilitate and provide end-to-end transactions, including discovery, payment, delivery and after-sales services.
However, it is not yet known when the company intends to go live with this offering. Also, it is not yet clear if the company has received regulatory approval or not. It is also not known whether Flipkart has already partnered with any insurance players.
It seems that the company is betting on its large customer base to expand the reach of the insurance products. It is also counting on its capabilities like its huge data mine of consumer insights, a differentiated value proposition to customers and its ability to deliver top-notch customer experience.
Flipkart is leaving no stones unturned as it aims to be at the pole position in the Indian e-commerce market. In order to compete against the global giant Amazon, the company has amassed a massive funding of around $4 billion this year.
It will be interesting to see how users react to this new offering from Flipkart, given that most of the new offerings from Flipkart has not been received well by the users. For instance, the company recently launched its grocery delivery service named ‘SuperMart’. This is the third attempt by the Bangalore-based company to enter the grocery market as the previous two products didn’t work out.