Monday 11 September 2017

September marks beginning of festive sales; Flipkart, Amazon, Paytm, Snapdeal to offer enticing deals

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Indian ecommerce players are all set to woo buyers with exciting festive deals, schemes and discounts. Each year Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, Paytm and others map out plans for the biggest shopping season centred on Diwali.
While Diwali is in the third week of October, etailers are geared up to kick-start the festive sales in September.
Sunil Shankar, Business Head at electronics brand Onida said, “The marketplaces are hopeful that consumer sentiments will be back during the festive sales, considering the Independence Day sales did not evoke much response coming shortly after the introduction of GST.”

Flipkart to offer consumer finance programs

The Indian ecommerce leader has announced the dates of its flagship annual sale event Big Billion Days (BBD). This year it is scheduled to take place from 20th September and would run till 24th September.
Besides offering up to 60% discounts on apparel, home furnishing items, home décor and accessories, Flipkart is going to push its private labels. The discount bracket is smaller for smartphones, televisions and home appliances – 10-30%. The etailer has also entered into exclusive partnerships with big brands to sell special collections.
Flipkart’s BBD targets include selling double the units of television compared to the regular day sales, tripling its gross sales and reaching the $1.5 billion mark. The marketplace also has in store consumer finance programmes like no cost EMI, product exchange offers, buy back guarantee and buy now pay later. These offers would encourage buyers to make big purchases.

Amazon to bank on Prime

The American etailer is going to match its arch rival Flipkart’s festive offerings, be it in terms of discounts, product portfolio or schemes. But Amazon Prime is going to be the game-changer for the online marketplace.
Amit Agarwal, Amazon India head asserted, “We are pretty confident that this will be our biggest shopping season ever…in our four-year history (in India). At a high level if I compare this year’s Great Indian Festival with last year, we’ve added more than 80 million products and grown selection two times… We’ll build upon the success of Prime Day. Our subscriptions have gone up two times since January…we’re seeing a lot of interest from customers in signing up for Prime before Diwali.”
Ahead of the festive sales, Amazon launched its largest fulfilment centre in Hyderabad, opened 45 physical kiosks, started cost-cutting activities, on-boarded mobile only vendors, and expanded installation services for large appliances.

Paytm would win customers with high cash-backs

The Alibaba-backed company is going to play to its strengths, which is cash-backs. Amazon and Flipkart too would be doling out cash-backs. But being the digital wallet leader, Paytm’scash-back offers would be the highest, say people aware of the etailer’s plans.
The etailer is also working on it O2O strategy and has set aside Rs. 1000 crore for the festive sales.

Snapdeal trusts the good old discounts

This festive season is going to test Snapdeal’s mettle. The etailer hosted a sale between September 1st and 3rd.  But it is “first of many such special promotions lined up for the festive season”, Snapdeal said.
The home-grown marketplace has reserved Rs. 40 crore for the upcoming peak shopping season.  And the firm plans to offer double digit discounts on consumer favourites like electronics and fashion.
You would place your bets on which of the online marketplaces? Flipkart, Amazon, Paytm or Snapdeal?

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