Now, Bansal is building a budget brand called Billion across categories such as electronics, appliances and accessories to attract new shoppers to
Flipkart, three people familiar with the matter said. Flipkart may also offer a low-priced
smartphone under the Billion brand to compete with the likes of
Xiaomi and Micromax, the people said on condition of anonymity.
Flipkart has already launched mixers, backpacks and a few other products under the Billion brand.
Billion is Bansal’s big project after he was forced to cede the CEO role to Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal in January 2016 after a disastrous year in which the company lost ground to arch-rival
Amazon India (Amazon Seller Services Pvt. Ltd). One year later, Binny himself was replaced by Kalyan Krishnamurthy, a representative of Flipkart’s largest investor Tiger Global Management.
“The brand is aimed at Middle India. You need a different set of products for customers in smaller cities and towns and that’s what Billion will do,” one of the people cited above said.
