Flipkart says Kolkata is its fastest-growing kidswear seller hub

Flipkart says Kolkata kidswear seller acquisition nearly doubled and seller sales rose about 30% year-on-year. The marketplace also expects Santipuri saree sales to exceed ₹170 crore this year, versus roughly ₹70 crore last year, as its local seller base expands.

— Source publishedTue, 15 Sept, 2026, 20:58 IST·First seen Tue, 15 Sept, 2026, 21:08 IST·Source The Hindu BusinessLine

What happened

Flipkart says Kolkata is its fastest-growing kidswear seller hub, with seller acquisition nearly doubling and sales up 30% year-on-year. It expects Santipuri

Key facts

  • Around 5,300 kidswear sellers from West Bengal on Flipkart
  • Around 90% of West Bengal kidswear sellers are from Kolkata
  • Kolkata seller count nearly doubled
  • Kolkata kidswear seller sales grew around 30% year-on-year
  • Kids jersey sales rose around 150% during IPL
  • Santipuri saree sales expected to exceed ₹170 crore this year
  • Santipuri saree sales were around ₹70 crore last year
  • Santipuri seller count more than tripled
  • Around 780 Santipur sellers transact on Flipkart
  • Santipur weaver and seller base was over 250 in January 2026

Why this matters

The growth of Kolkata’s kidswear and Santipuri saree seller ecosystem makes regional seller-enablement, logistics and vernacular-commerce partnerships attractive targets for accelerating apparel marketplace share.

What to watch

  • Whether Kolkata kidswear seller sales sustain growth above 25-30% after the next major festive period.
  • Actual Santipuri saree gross merchandise value relative to the stated ₹170 crore target.
  • Seller retention and active-listing growth, rather than gross seller-signup growth alone.
  • Return rates, customer ratings, cancellation rates, and counterfeit complaints in kidswear and ethnicwear.
  • Competitor commission cuts, seller incentives, or regional-fashion campaigns from Meesho, Amazon, and Myntra.
  • Evidence of new Flipkart fulfillment, sortation, or seller-service investments in West Bengal.
  • Expand seller acquisition beyond Kolkata into Nadia, Murshidabad, Hooghly, and nearby textile-production clusters.
  • Offer onboarding, catalog photography, vernacular support, credit, and fulfillment incentives to convert informal apparel businesses into repeat marketplace sellers.
  • Feature Santipuri sarees and Bengali festive apparel in Durga Puja, wedding, and regional-event campaigns.
  • Increase quality assurance, return-reduction tools, seller scorecards, and authenticity controls for fast-growing apparel subcategories.
  • Build faster east-region fulfillment capacity and use local inventory positioning to improve delivery promises.