Flipkart targets Rs. 3250 crores sales during the Big Billion Days

Leading ecommerce player Flipkart is hoping to notch up a sales value of around Rs. 3,250 crores from its Big Billion Day sale. This sale figure is important to help push up the company’s Gross Merchandise Value (GMV). GMV is the total sales value that a marketplace makes minus the discounts and offers.

Flipkart’s GMV witnessed a brief spike after a lull, and has risen to around Rs. 2,600 crores in September. The challenge is to sustain its growth. With investors having bet a total of $ 3 billion in the bellwether, Flipkart has a lot riding on it. The company has also had cash outflow worth $ 20 to $ 30 million on a monthly basis. This increases its need for multiple investors. However, things have not looked too good for the company in the capital raising front this year.

Beset with roadblocks

What are the thorns in the company’s path?

“Flipkart has been moving away from its inventory-led model to a pure marketplace over the past year, which is one reason for its sluggish growth as it lost a lot of sales due to this big change. They’ve also stopped a lot of offers on their website focusing only on the app,”said an official familiar with the situation, on condition of anonymity.

“Overall, it’s been a year of transition at the company with a string of senior-level hires and the departure of some of its early employees. What needs to be seen is how they’ll sustain last month’s spike in GMV, going into the festive season, as exclusive tie-ups, like the one with Motorola, which were money-spinners for the e-tailer, are now available on Snapdeal and Amazon as well,” said the official.

Betting much on sales season

Most leading ecommerce platforms are hoping that the upcoming season of sales will help their fortunes.

“It’s a very important period for e-tailers and a lot would depend on how Indian consumers behave this year after the not-so-great experience they had last year,” said Harish H Vpartner at Grant Thornton, accounting and consulting firm.

So this festive season will be the decider. All that we can say is may the best seller win! Puns well intended!