Homegrown ecommerce firm Flipkart is organizing its first big sale event since the lockdown was lifted from June 23-27, with a focus on smartphones, television, laptops and fashion, at a time when overall industry sales volumes have recovered 80-90% of levels seen before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Walmart-owned etailer has launched an online campaign featuring Amitabh Bachchan for the five-day Big Savings Day event.
The sale will largely be led by brands looking to offload inventory, and partner banks bringing in affordability schemes.
Rival Amazon has yet to announce a full-fledged sale, but the company will match prices of non-exclusive brands offered by other platforms, according to a person aware of the matter.
E-commerce has seen a significant jump in units shipped, even as sales recovery continues to be low, data from Unicommerce showed.
Categories such as smartphones and computer accessories, trimmers and Wi-Fi routers grew 145% compared to sales before the pandemic, while fashion recovered to 70% of levels seen previously, the technology solutions provider for online retailers said, which ET reported on June 22.
Flipkart did not respond to ET’s queries seeking details on its sale and how it was looking to push demand.
Flipkart group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy had earlier told ET in an interview that the upper middle-income group was becoming more value-conscious, even as small towns and cities were driving growth.
“The idea is to keep the momentum going and push the demand further with attractive offers,” said a person aware of the company’s plans.
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This is also the first event that Flipkart has hosted since it started disproportionately focusing on its video format selling proposition Flipkart TV, as well as games and quizzes to engage with customers from small towns.
Other ecommerce players, including beauty e-tailer Nykaa, online furniture retailer Pepperfry, and standalone retail brands like Zara, H&M and Mango, have begun nudging customers with online flash sale events to shore up sales after two months under a nationwide lockdown.
It is also a way for platforms to keep transactions going at a time when pent-up demand across sectors has been addressed.
Amazon, for instance, is currently running its fashion sale, called Wardrobe Refresh sale.
“Over the last couple of weeks, offers, discounts and financing options across platforms have been attractive but businesses have refrained from going aggressive with marketing… Flipkart from that perspective is playing from the front foot,” said a consumer electronics brand that lists on both platforms.
Flipkart’s sale begins right after its fashion and lifestyle ecommerce platfrom, Myntra, concluded its End of Reason Sale (EORS), which was anchored by Bollywood actors Hrithik Roshan and Sonakshi Sinha.
Myntra said it saw a 100% rise in orders over last year and 92% growth in the number of shoppers in small towns and cities on the first day of EORS, led by Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Imphal, Aizwal and Panchkula.
“The 12th edition of EORS has performed to our expectations so far… we have acquired a record high of 2.5 lakh new customers and traffic to our platform currently stands at thrice as much as our normal days,” Amar Nagaram, CEO of Myntra, said.
Myntra’s sale saw at least 50 brands such as Mango, GAP, Peter England, Louis Philippe, US Pollo and Charles & Keith deliver directly from brand stores to doorsteps.
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