E-commerce platforms are back in the battleground with lucrative deals and huge discounts on almost all items, eyeing big boost in sales for the festive season. Shoppers are eyeing annual festive sales like Flipkart's Big Billion Day and Amazon's Great Indian Festival to get some great deals.
Apart from the biggies – Flipkart and Amazon India – Paytm Mall, Snapdeal and ShopClues will also enter the arena this year.
The annual festive sales – that began on Wednesday – are surely going to be an advantage for the customer as the cut-throat competition among the online retailers will let them avail several exclusive offers, deep discounts and cashbacks.
Industry analysts have estimated that e-commerce platforms are likely to garner cumulative sales of Rs 15,000 crore in the coming weeks. Total industry shipments per day during the peak sale season is estimated to be 5 million, a steep jump from the 3-million shipments last year.
Both Flipkart and Amazon are also looking to speed up deliveries and reduce delivery time by at least a day. Media reports suggest that the two online retailers have spent a collective Rs 100 crore on advertisements on television.
Also, this is the first major online sale season ever after the launch of Reliance Jio. The impact of Jio will lead to many first-time 4G phone shoppers.
Flipkart
Having tasked executives with registering a lead of “70-30” over rival Amazon India, Flipkart starts its five-day long “Big Billion Day” sales from September 20, which will end on September 24.
This year, the company is offering ‘buy now and pay later’ option for its loyal customers and also instalments on debit card transactions, for which it has joined hands with four big banks for the same.
Calling it a “big loot", Flipkart will be putting up television, refrigerators, split ACs and washing machines for a grand sale at up to 70 per cent off.
It is also promising a big bargain on Asus, Motorola and HTC budget smartphones as well as a massive discount and deal on Samsung Galaxy S7 and Redmi 4A.
Amazon India
Amazon India’s “Great Indian Festival” will begin exclusively for its “Prime” customers on September 20 at 12 pm. The Prime members will get a 12-hour window before the rest of the world gets access to its festive season buys.
However, the festival sale for all customers of Amazon India will be from September 21 to 24.
Amazon India is offering deals, cashbacks and discounts on several categories, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, large appliances, baby products, clothing and accessories, beauty products, home and kitchen products, furniture and stationery products.
In addition to exclusive app-only deals, customers using Amazon Pay will also get 10 per cent cashback up to Rs 500.
Paytm
Paytm will also be launching it first major sales event between September 20-23 through its e-commerce arm Paytm Mall.
As per an earlier report, the digital payments player has earmarked Rs 501 crore as cashbacks during the sale, which will reportedly range from 15 per cent to 100 per cent. This includes up to Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000 cashbacks on refrigerators and televisions, respectively.
Cashbacks will be on mix of products including Paytm Gold. The company has collaborated with partner brands and merchants for the sale.
