The ongoing festive season sales have turned to be the latest battleground for India’s top two online retailers to achieve supremacy of this fast-expanding market. Walmart-backed Flipkart and Amazon India have both claimed record sales on the first day of sales on the back of strong demand from cities beyond the major metros.
Flipkart claimed that it recorded two times sales growth on the first day of the festive sales, compared to last year’s opening day sales of the TBBD, as the number of transacting customers from Tier II, III, IV cities doubled. Travel is the fastest-growing category on Flipkart, with 12X growth compared to last year, according to the company.
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Kalyan Krishnamurthy, chief executive, Flipkart in a statement said: “There is no doubt that e-commerce has not only lifted consumer sentiment but has also driven the industry to set new benchmarks. Affordability and value-driven themes clearly are the pulsating chords for India and Bharat. We are in the centre of it all and are able to serve the ecosystem for their unique needs.”
Amazon India aren’t resting on their laurels either. According to Amazon’s senior vice-president Amit Agarwal, the company also saw the single-largest day of Prime sign-ups, with 66 per cent of Prime members shopping in 24 hours coming from tier II and tier III towns. The company added that 91 per cent of new customers were from smaller cities.
“Whether it is the Diwali festival season or any other shopping event, the primary objective for us is to add as many new customers as we can and convert the existing customer into Prime members. We are relevant to customers, no matter the macroeconomic conditions,” said Agarwal.
Flipkart’s The Big Billion Days (TBBD) started on Saturday night (8pm), while Amazon India’s Great Indian Festival sales began on Saturday noon for Prime subscribers and opened for all 12 hours later. Both festive sales will come to a close on October 4th, if you’re in India you’ll probably want to rush for a new device before the sales are over.
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