[arunphilip]

Flipkart have started selling tyres. As an introductory offer, they will fit the tires for free at fitment centres with whom they've tied up.

Brands currently listed are Apollo, Bridgestone, Ceat, Falken, Goodyear, JK Tyre, Michelin, MRF and Yokohoma.

URL: http://www.flipkart.com/automotive/c...hx%2Cf6q%2C4pl

[sudev]

Interesting. The only trouble expected is for warranty. Product replacement if tyre goes "bad" is usually handled by retail outlet after few muttering and bit of persuasion. How will this work for purchases through flipkart? Or other online sellers?

Have been hearing similar post sale support grumblings on a/c purchased online.

[GTO]

The king of online retail enters the tyre business but - oh dear - what a half-hearted attempt.

Using their tyre section makes it obvious they've put little thought into it, and have only gotten in for the heck of it. For instance, their make & model menu is completely messed up. On the brands list, check the spelling of Volkaswagen . And there's two entries for Hyunda / Hyundai . Worse still, for model year, you can choose only 2011!

As a company grows, mediocrity sets in (unless attention to detail becomes an organisational habit). This lame effort is a shame for a brand like Flipkart which has unlimited resources.

Sheesh, thumbs down.

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by GTO

The king of online retail enters the tyre business but - oh dear - what a half-hearted attempt.

Does anyone want to bet that Amazon.in is probably going to launch tires on their site very soon, and this was just Flipkart's quick play to get first mover status?

I have noticed recent expansions between both portals have occurred quite closely that they both seem to be taking a leaf out of one-another's books. It's almost a competition to see how many categories each of them can span.

Back on the topic of tires, the sellers all seem to be third parties, and there's no Flipkart Advantage. I have generally shied away from anything not fulfilled by Flipkart, so there's little compelling reason to look here.

And like GTO said, the range is quite poor - I did a quick check for the Michelin Primacy 3ST, and tires for the EcoSport - neither are available.

[sudev]

Any price comparisons? Brick and mortar retailers vis online guys? Strategically this would be best time to buy tyres as the online guys do deep discounting to get volumes

[malgudi]

The Tyre section looks like beta testing. I was looking at tyres for my Swift and the Yokohoma tyres show prices as N/A while though Bridgestone shows available with prices mentioned, if you open the page and enter your city Pincode it shows not available with any retailer (I tried with all major Pincode from Mumbai & Pune) .

Looks like they have added the Tyres section for the heck of it without any real intention to sell or maybe to increase their valuation further and attract investors.

[PrideRed]

Very limited selection. Also their sort option is pathetic. The majority of the models listed are in existent or very old. They have Cielo also in their list, interesting! Most of the tires are 12-14 inches. Looks like Flipkart is targeting 10-20 year old car models .
Among online sellers Changemytyre is still the benchmark while Snapdeal is catching up fast.

[anilp]

Originally Posted by malgudi

if you open the page and enter your city Pincode it shows not available with any retailer (I tried with all major Pincode from Mumbai & Pune) .

Same here. I tried Mumbai and Navi Mumbai pin codes. No luck. Maybe they are beta testing in Bangalore before they extend it to other locations. Their price is competitive for the Bridgestones I checked.

[AJITHAAA]

Flipkart is late to the table with their tyre sales and also they do not have all the sizes from all manufacturers. Hope they will catchup with others soon. Changemytire and snapdeal have been doing it for a long time now. Was in the market for 2 195/60/R14 Falkens. Checked with the dealer, he was not stocking them any more. Price on Changemytire.com was way higher than the the dealer price. Got them for a steal on Snapdeal.com and by applying a generic coupon code saved a healthy Rs.1300 on each tire. I am in no way endorsing Snapdeal but just spreading the good news .

[CrackedHead]

Originally Posted by arunphilip

Does anyone want to bet that Amazon.in is probably going to launch tires on their site very soon, and this was just Flipkart's quick play to get first mover status?

Amazon.in has been listing MRF tyres for a while now.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by arunphilip

Does anyone want to bet that Amazon.in is probably going to launch tires on their site very soon

Originally Posted by AJITHAAA

Flipkart is late to the table with their tyre sales

Originally Posted by CrackedHead

Amazon.in has been listing MRF tyres for a while now.

I think it'll be very hard for these general list-all-product websites to compete with the specialists. Take the example of batteries (batterybhai.com, carbatteryexpert.com and bookmybattery.com). I've had a fabulous experience with the first one and wouldn't even consider Flipkart for car batteries, if & when they start selling them. Related thread.

Similarly, Amazon & Flipkart have clothing departments, yet (I believe) Jabong & Myntra are bigger in that space.

[Jeep]

Had purchased tyres for both Esteem and Alto (Michelin Xm 2 and Bridgestone) last year from Snapdeal. Got good deals, and the tyres were just 1 month/2 months old.

BTW Paytm was offering tyres at great discount around a couple of weeks ago. I missed it. Beat this - Michelin XM2 175/70/R13 at aroud 3100 :(.. We were thinking of selling off the Esteem, so wasn't sure whether to go for it or not

[hemanth.anand]

Originally Posted by AJITHAAA

Flipkart is late to the table with their tyre sales and also they do not have all the sizes from all manufacturers. Hope they will catchup with others soon. Changemytire and snapdeal have been doing it for a long time now. Was in the market for 2 195/60/R14 Falkens. Checked with the dealer, he was not stocking them any more. Price on Changemytire.com was way higher than the the dealer price. Got them for a steal on Snapdeal.com and by applying a generic coupon code saved a healthy Rs.1300 on each tire. I am in no way endorsing Snapdeal but just spreading the good news .

Last year, for a colleague of mine, we used the services of Changemytyre website.
It was a very good experience and at a good price.

But around 6 months ago, when I wanted one tyre for myself, changemytyre didn't have the required brand/size. It was not available in all the usual tyre retailers in Bangalore as well

It was at this time I found out that Snapdeal was also selling tyres.
Initially, I was happy (and surprised at the same time) and ordered it. But they cancelled it after 4 days saying it is not in stock.
However they led me to the same tyre with another seller and took a second order. Then they cancelled that order too
Why list the product when it is not available in the first place. Not a good experience for a buyer

Finally it was through TBHP I got it from Mumbai-which is a different story.

So here comes flipkart with tyres. From Flipkart, people will obviously expect a better experience and seems they have fallen short of it by a long distance.
For now, it is still better to buy tyres in physical stores.

[jkrishnakj]

Its a wonderful experience , isnt it, to be visiting a tyre shop, touching them, feeling the treads, deciding something before going there, and changing to a different brand after you visit the shop. Then, to watch those guys go aboue their action of changing the tyres, and then, the WA and WB routine. Purely personal opinion, whilst i have done a lot of purchases online, i suspect i will ever buy a car tyre online.

[rajeshsundaram]

Originally Posted by GTO

... For instance, their make & model menu is completely messed up. On the brands list, check the spelling of Volkaswagen . And there's two entries for Hyunda / Hyundai . Worse still, for model year, you can choose only 2011!
...

Blame it on Flipkart's data upload process, where in the seller has to upload an excel sheet filled with all the details (Make, Model, Price) etc of the product, and let the back-end update the site accordingly. So if the seller accidentally enters HYUNDA in one cell, and HYUNDAI in another cell, the back-end considers HYUNDA as one manufacturer/category/section and HYUNDAI as another manufacturer/category/section.

It was the seller's responsibility to ensure the correctness of the information he uploads. Unless someone takes the pain and send a feedback email to Flipkart, this sort of errors go un-noticed.

Here is a joke, that still exists. A seller at Flipkart has put up a WorldTech Car Audio System, with a "1 Year Dummy Company Domestic Warranty"




Link for the Flipkart Page:
http://www.flipkart.com/worldtech-on...er=from-search

This was the problem that was discussed when I attended an UX interview at Flipkart. I still do not know if they still follow the same process or improvised it any further.