How does Flipkart make money?

They are same as a Mall or any other retail store but their presence is online, more of a Virtual Retail Store, where you can not physically touch the product. However you can see it as closely as possible. The way they make money is same as any other retail store but they eliminate some of the middle men in the distribution system. These elimination of middlemen from the distribution system makes the cost of the products a little cheaper compared to the one you buy from your neighbor...

There are some interesting perspectives before we answer this question : Is it important to be profitable for flipkart ? : E commerce in India has just reached < 1/10 th of its potential. Out of 120 Crore Indian not more than 1.5 crores use E Commerce frequently.  At steady state it should be at least above 10% which means the market should reach at least 15 Crore users by 2015. At this stage, as long as they keep getting VC money they should continue soaking losses if their transaction volume and userbase keeps expanding. This rationale cannot be understood by myopic investors but it does make strategic sense to continue booking losses at this stage when the market itself is underserved and expanding at rapid rate. I explain it in the next point. The street is paved with gold : I remember reading Kim Woo Choong's autobiography. The former Daewoo Founder, was a newspaper vendor when in teens. In war torn South Korea in 70s, people were crazy and eager for news ( Underserved and expanding). He realized that if he delivers and collects change from each of his customers, he would lose time, limit his sale and wont become the largest newsboy. He devised a new approach. He ran along the pavements giving newspaper to each and every person who would take it and reach the other end of the street fastest. He would collect the money on the journey back. He calculated that even if 5 or 10 people slipped away without paying, he could make 3 times more profit. This is what this visionary did. Flipkart and its investors at this stage are seemingly losing money. In the long run it may not. In chess, this is often called 'Sham sacrifice', a master, apparently offers to sacrifice a bishop. The amateur bites the bait and goes for it. The next masterstroke then beheads his Queen. Flipkart at this stage may be on this forward pass of delivering. The losses in COD are a tactics from Chess book. This is what bachcha investors castigating will miss out. Fortifications : The warehousing infrastructure, branding and team that flipkart has been able to create is a huge entry barrier for anyone trying to enter this space. Do you think of any other brand when ordering book as on today. The simplest way to be profitable is to fire your employees, cut all costs but that is at the cost of speed in growth. In web its the mindshare and userbase that counts. Profits can be done any day its founders want if the customer base is robust. While Shailendra Singh the MD of Sequoia says they regret not having invested in FK, the myopic non investees will keep thumping chest or play pocket polo and cry foul, foul ;)

you can sell their products and get more commissions. You can make amazing YouTube videos on books reviews and electronics products reviews and sell it by affiliate link. You can also earn by YouTube partner program. Never loose your hope.