1. How would you define order,- this is important because are we talking about placed orders or delivered orders, that will change whether it could be an internal factor or an external factor
2. What is the time period of the orders going down? The decline is compared to which time period
3. Is there a specific segment that has taken a major hit?
4. Are there any major competitors rolling out any major offers that could affect our revenue?
Further, I would build a complete user journey mapping from user coming to the app to the user placing an order and walk the interviewer through the funnel and ask if there is a steep drop-off noticed from any of the steps, if yes I would dive deeper and create hypothesis around it and try to come up with potential hypothesis on that drop-off along with supporting solutions.
R
Rakshitha Prasad
Clarifying Questions:
1.Down by 10% compared to what baseline — last week, same period last year? - it will give an idea about the baseline- if it is seasonal or structural
2.Is "orders" gross orders or net of cancellations/returns?- to get an idea about if it is a demand side problem or if it is due to more return or cancellation - damaged products, late arrival, payment failures etc
3.Is this a sudden change or a gradual decline over weeks?
How I would look further :
1. see for a particular segment for drop- like region(competitor/seasonal) , category or platform(tech bug)
2. is the traffic down(demand side issue) or conversion down (experience issue - like payment failures).
3. compare it with last year not just month over month - seasonal issues can be ruled out by this
4. check competitors data- if they are also facing the dip- highly likely to be seasonal
1. if the issue is seasonal - expected - nothing to be done other than monitoring . To be forecasted for next year
2. If it is competitor based - Don't just price-match blindly — identify why they're winning (price, speed, or selection), then respond with our strongest lever (e.g., delivery speed, bundles, targeted promos).
3. Tech bug(checkout issue, stockout, payment failures)- fix it on priority
4.if it is dip in demand - can be due to multiple things like inflation- need to focus on retention , providing emi options, loyalty programs
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rishendra vikram singh
So first we check this is more seasonal thing, since Flipkart main order value are mostly influenced by sale events like Big billion days, A 10% drop right after a sale period is expected, not alarming.
First, I would establish what we are comparing against. If it’s real apply first principles. Orders are the output of three things that work together
a. traffic coming to platform,
b. conversion of that traffic into purchases,
c. repeat behavior from existing customers.
A 10% drop could be from one of these layers, and the fix is completely different for each.
Before hypothesizing, I’d segment by category, geography, and customer. Is this uniform across fashion, electronics and grocery or concentrated in one? Is it Tier 1 cities or Tier 2 and Tier 3? Is it new customers or repeat buyers? A concentrated drop tells very specific story.
My leading hypothesis for Flipkart specifically is competitive pressure. Meesho has been aggressive in the value segment and quick commerce players Zepto, Blinkit are eating market share in grocery and daily essentials. That combined with app experience degradation would show up exactly this way.
My focus would be a fix follows what we find.
- If is discovery, fix ranking and relevance
- If it’s competition revisit pricing and deals.
- If it’s checkout, audit where payments are falling
But we won’t touch any lever until we know at which point it broke.
Community Answers (3)
1. How would you define order,- this is important because are we talking about placed orders or delivered orders, that will change whether it could be an internal factor or an external factor 2. What is the time period of the orders going down? The decline is compared to which time period 3. Is there a specific segment that has taken a major hit? 4. Are there any major competitors rolling out any major offers that could affect our revenue? Further, I would build a complete user journey mapping from user coming to the app to the user placing an order and walk the interviewer through the funnel and ask if there is a steep drop-off noticed from any of the steps, if yes I would dive deeper and create hypothesis around it and try to come up with potential hypothesis on that drop-off along with supporting solutions.
Clarifying Questions: 1.Down by 10% compared to what baseline — last week, same period last year? - it will give an idea about the baseline- if it is seasonal or structural 2.Is "orders" gross orders or net of cancellations/returns?- to get an idea about if it is a demand side problem or if it is due to more return or cancellation - damaged products, late arrival, payment failures etc 3.Is this a sudden change or a gradual decline over weeks? How I would look further : 1. see for a particular segment for drop- like region(competitor/seasonal) , category or platform(tech bug) 2. is the traffic down(demand side issue) or conversion down (experience issue - like payment failures). 3. compare it with last year not just month over month - seasonal issues can be ruled out by this 4. check competitors data- if they are also facing the dip- highly likely to be seasonal 1. if the issue is seasonal - expected - nothing to be done other than monitoring . To be forecasted for next year 2. If it is competitor based - Don't just price-match blindly — identify why they're winning (price, speed, or selection), then respond with our strongest lever (e.g., delivery speed, bundles, targeted promos). 3. Tech bug(checkout issue, stockout, payment failures)- fix it on priority 4.if it is dip in demand - can be due to multiple things like inflation- need to focus on retention , providing emi options, loyalty programs
So first we check this is more seasonal thing, since Flipkart main order value are mostly influenced by sale events like Big billion days, A 10% drop right after a sale period is expected, not alarming. First, I would establish what we are comparing against. If it’s real apply first principles. Orders are the output of three things that work together a. traffic coming to platform, b. conversion of that traffic into purchases, c. repeat behavior from existing customers. A 10% drop could be from one of these layers, and the fix is completely different for each. Before hypothesizing, I’d segment by category, geography, and customer. Is this uniform across fashion, electronics and grocery or concentrated in one? Is it Tier 1 cities or Tier 2 and Tier 3? Is it new customers or repeat buyers? A concentrated drop tells very specific story. My leading hypothesis for Flipkart specifically is competitive pressure. Meesho has been aggressive in the value segment and quick commerce players Zepto, Blinkit are eating market share in grocery and daily essentials. That combined with app experience degradation would show up exactly this way. My focus would be a fix follows what we find. - If is discovery, fix ranking and relevance - If it’s competition revisit pricing and deals. - If it’s checkout, audit where payments are falling But we won’t touch any lever until we know at which point it broke.