Flipkart, one of India’s early startups, is still struggling to find its path towards profitability. Though it started more than a decade ago, since then it has been running its operation with losses. Flipkart’s case is so different that it has seen management changes and even owners. Different people have worked to scale, but somehow it still continued to be a loss-making company. The biggest breakthrough came when Walmart acquired Flipkart. The revenues have grown manifold, and today their revenue stands at close to $3 billion. In this article let’s dive deeper and understand its financials, and also let’s take a closer picture of why it is still making losses. And what is the way ahead for Flipkart to turn profitable? First, let us understand their financials.
Flipkart Internet reported a 14% year-on-year growth in revenue, crossing the ₹20,000 crore mark in the fiscal year ending March 2025. Its total revenue stood at ₹20,807 crore (~$2.5–3 billion), driven by three major segments: First is its Marketplace Services. The revenue jumped from ₹3,734 crore in FY24 to ₹7,751 crore in FY25, more than doubling in a year. Marketplace now contributes 38% of total operating revenue. This reflects strong growth in customer base, product categories, and seller participation. Then comes advertising income, and revenues grew by 27% YoY to ₹6,317 crore, making up 31% of total revenue. Flipkart is increasingly monetizing its massive seller base by offering paid advertising solutions, similar to Amazon Ads. Then there is a third source through Logistics Services. The revenue dropped by 38% to ₹4,224 crore, while costs still increased by 9%. This segment now contributes 21% of operating revenue. Additionally, non-operating revenue (mostly from investments or other financial activities) added another ₹314 crore. Now these are the revenue sources of Flipkart.
But now we also need to see where they are spending; then we will get a clear picture. In FY25, Flipkart’s total expenses grew by 8%, reaching ₹22,311 crore compared to ₹20,627 crore in the previous year. The biggest chunk of costs came from logistics service charges, which increased to ₹7,144 crore and made up nearly one-third of the total expenses. On the positive side, employee benefit expenses came down by 8% to ₹4,748 crore, showing some control over salary-related costs. However, marketing expenses went up sharply by 37%, rising to ₹4,100 crore, as Flipkart continued to spend heavily to attract new customers in a highly competitive market. Despite these high expenses, Flipkart managed to reduce its losses by 37%, from ₹2,359 crore in FY24 to ₹1,494 crore in FY25. Its EBITDA losses also improved significantly, coming down to ₹1,078 crore from ₹1,869 crore, with the EBITDA margin improving from -10.25% to -5.18%. So, though there is a reduction in losses, there is still a long way to go to turn profitable.
But where is this going wrong basically? To understand this, we will start with the unit economics. It helps us understand how much the company is spending to earn every ₹1 in revenue. For FY25, Flipkart managed to improve its unit economics: it now spends ₹1.09 to earn ₹1, compared to ₹1.15 the previous year. This is a positive sign. It shows that Flipkart is becoming more efficient in managing costs, optimizing operations, and reducing wasteful spending. But even with this improvement, there is a fundamental problem: Spending more than ₹1 to earn ₹1 means that every single order Flipkart fulfils is still a loss-making transaction.
Why is this the case? It all comes from the competition and business that they are operating, and second is customer behavior. Not just Flipkart, even global giant Amazon is still struggling to find its path towards profitability for its Indian operations. The Indian market is so price-sensitive that people need discounts, cashbacks, and offers to purchase a product. When there are more players in the market, everyone needs to attract the audience by offering deep discounts and cash backs to attract them. This all comes at a cost. This is what led to increasing marketing spending by Flipkart.
Then comes the biggest drawback of e-commerce and even quick commerce, which is their margins. Most products on Flipkart are sold at thin margins due to heavy competition. Third-party sellers dominate, and Flipkart earns a small percentage of every transaction as commission. A rise in competition and an evolving industry landscape is a problem not just for Flipkart but also for Amazon. Interestingly, even the Walmart International CEO openly stated that Flipkart’s primary focus is not profitability but market share expansion. This is a strategic, deliberate choice, not a sign of failure. But why? India is one of the fastest-growing e-commerce markets in the world, projected to reach $200–300 billion by 2030.
The opportunity is enormous, but so is the competition. Today Flipkart competes with Amazon India, Reliance JioMart, Meesho, and other regional players. But what is interesting about Flipkart today is its dominance in the market share. As of early 2024, it has around 42% of the share. As of July 2025, Flipkart leads the Indian e-commerce market with a significant 48% share based on Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), while its closest competitor, Amazon India, holds a 31% share. This reflects Flipkart’s strong position in terms of the total value of goods sold on its platform. However, when we look at daily order volume, the picture looks a bit different: Amazon India processes around 2.6 million orders daily, slightly more than Flipkart’s 2.4 million orders.
So, the summary of the whole discussion is simple. Flipkart still needs more time to turn profitable, but one thing that it must take care of is the rising competition from quick commerce players. If quick commerce adoption rises faster in tier 2 and 3 cities than expected, it will impact the business of Flipkart because they still have dominance in these markets. Let’s see how Flipkart also plays the quick commerce game and retains its market share and turns profitable in coming years.
Also Read: How Myntra Achieved Profitability: A Look at Its High-Growth Revenue Streams
