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Flipkart to woo authors at Jaipur Literature fest

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Flipkart is sending a team to Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) to persuade authors at the event to engage with its 26 million customers. The event is scheduled for January 21-25.ย 

The online retailer plans to start a section where authors will write about their work, inspiration and books that had an impact on them along with recommendations, interviews and podcasts in the next few months.ย 

“We are looking at authors who will tell our buyers their recommendations, books they are reading and we will look at targeting the aesthetics of the customers. Ultimately, this will impact sales as well,” said Vivek Tejuja, manager, books (customer engagement).

Flipkart has reached out to publishers of authors such as Amish Tripathi, VS Naipaul, Samanth Subramanian, Namita Gokhale, Aakar Patel and Jeet Thayil and the response has been ‘positive,'” he said.ย 

The move is a way of boosting book sales through the site without being obvious about it, said an expert. “It is a good way to build excitement and become a market differentiator,” said Ankur Bisen, senior vice-president for retail and consumer products at consultant Technopak.

“It takes the conversation away from the ‘price’ point and shows the importance of the book section. Flipkart after all started their journey with books.”ย 

According to Bisen, around 65% of Flipkart’s sales comes from electronics and fashion while 10-15% will be from books. “Customers moving online to buy books have a stickiness about them and they will continue to buy from that site unlike those buying a mobile phone who have many options to flip around,” Bisen said.ย 

During the 2012 JLF, Wipro had sent a team of 20 senior executives from its BPO business to understand the art of communicating better.