Flipkart’s man for growing the online ad business is doing his job well. Here’s how

In a bid to engage with its customers more efficiently and drive profitability, Flipkart has come up native advertising for companies, even for the brands that do not sell through it.

Through Flipkart’s new brand story ad format, the online marketplace expects to gain monetarily from its consumer traffic.

The ad format means companies will be able to target specific customers browsing through products related to their own on the online marketplace.

"Unlike a Google, which is search and display-focussed, or Facebook, which is more social, we are very transaction-focussed with a strong purchase intent. Our brands will also get a holistic view on their return on investments on the marketing spends (and) about a user's awareness of the product, intent to buy, to the final purchase," Ravi Garikipati, Flipkart’s entrepreneur-in-residence, told ET.

Flipkart is expected to cash out new high-margin revenue streams and accelerate profitability.

"Currently we are building our own as well as integrating with public exchanges including Adnexus, Google Ad Exchange to map the Flipkart audience to the audience that we have on these networks, to essentially retarget them,” Garikipati told ET.

He added that nearly one-fifth of the customers visiting Flipkart's mobile app make a purchase.

Flipkart recorded revenue of Rs 2,937.7 crore in 2013-14 on selling goods worth about $1billion (about Rs 6,500 crore).