Women take the helm at Flipkart for Big Billion Days

KOLKATA:“I still get goosebumps when the sale begins at midnight; it’s a complete head rush,” says Ishita Bhatia, director of private labels at Flipkart, about the Big Billion Days sale that begins on Sunday.

Bhatia is among a bunch of female executives playing key roles in the ecommerce marketplace’s flagship annual event, headed by Nandita Sinha, vice-president, events, engagement and merchandising. Nearly half of the core team driving BBD this year are ladies.

Anil Goteti, senior vice-president at Flipkart, says having women play a key role in BBD makes a huge difference at a time when the platform is trying to attract more women customers. “It’s especially in how we engage with our wide and growing base of female consumers across India — from the offerings we come up with to the way we strategically communicate with them,” he said.

Bhatia — a BBD veteran of sorts, this being the sixth event she’s associated with – said the rush of excitement she feels as orders spike and customer numbers rack up on the many screens put up across the Bengaluru office is unbeatable. She even planned her wedding around the sale last year, to ensure that she didn’t miss out on the action!

Other women working behind the stage for BBD 2019 include Krishna Tiwari, who leads the home page merchandising and consumer interface team, Kritika Sota, who leads intrigue planning and customer engagement, Shweta Agarwal, who heads women’s clothing, Aishwarya Kalakata, who spearheads programme management, Sonal Kapoor in fintech, Keerthi Peravalli in growth and planning team, Nikita Prakash in marketing programme, Nupur Roye in design, and Sneha Narang, who leads media strategy and planning.

Sinha is anchoring BBD for the first time, having taken over from Smrithi Ravichandran who now leads the business of fintech. “We’re working with a huge number of people, across every vertical to try and ensure that everything goes off seamlessly,” she said.

This year, to get external partners and customers talk about BBD, Flipkart invited 40 brands to create innovative selections meant only for the sale, tied up with fast-food chain Burger King to launch a BBD special burger, and even released a music video with rapper Badshah.

“Our job is to break through and get 50% women online,” Sinha said. Women-centric categories such as fashion, home and beauty have been doing well on the Flipkart platform, she said.

Ravichandran, who anchored the Big Billion Days from 2016 to 2018, said Flipkart has a strong track record of women playing decisive roles. “We have women in many key leadership positions across the organisation and it says a lot that our biggest event of the year is run by our women leaders,” she said. “Being at the helm of it is an empowering feeling.”

Preparations for the event start 6-8 months in advance and gather momentum over the last month. Late nights and stayovers are common, with some, like Bhatia, saying they have put in up to three nights in office at one stretch. Family plays an important support role, with spouses, parents and even kids chipping in.

Sinha, for instance, has her mother flying in from Lucknow to support her. Till last year, Ravichandran brought her son to the office when they were working over the weekends. “It was a good opportunity for him to see what his mother does and the entire team effort that goes into pulling off an event at this scale,” she said.