VCs, investors, e-commerce companies, startups and Cashback Industry News are keeping a close watch on sales among the big competitors in the critical festival shopping season in India. We’ve got up-to-date reports and perspectives to share. The big three – Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon India – are in a pitched battle to make sales and create loyal, active online consumers.
Flipkart’s big gamble to go app-only has hit some speed bumps with technical glitches and delivery challenges though it sold more than one million products in its first 10 hours and $300 million in five days. By contrast, smaller Snapdeal has focused on promoting across app, website and mobile channels shipping more than 5 million products in the first 24 hours. It even poked lighthearted fun at Flipkart for its strategy and sales glitches. Amazon India worked very hard to invest in planning and logistics prior to launching its own festival sales program. On Oct 13, Amazon had its biggest sales date ever in India, estimated at 8-10 times regular day sales, though it did not release actual sales figures.
Meanwhile, much smaller competitor GoPaisa launched a festival TV advertising campaign reinforcing its image as the app to use for smart shoppers who don’t want to be a “kaddu” (fool). Paytm with new $575 million VC investment from Alibaba is taking a longer-term strategy in its new e-commerce venture.
Cashback News India Festival Update
Here’s a roundup of early festival India sales results from the major players…
India: Flipkart, Amazon see surge in orders as tech infra holds up
India’s largest e-commerce firm Flipkart Ltd reported more than $300 million in value of goods sold over five days last week. It was a reprise of last year’s day-long Big Billion Day sale. The sale was open only to shoppers using the company’s smartphone app. Restricting the sale to its app helped Flipkart drive as many as five million app downloads last week, Flipkart chief product officer Punit Soni said…
Amazon India (owned by Amazon Seller Services Pvt. Ltd) reported a fivefold increase in the number of new customers on its site, compared with traffic on a non-sale day. During the five-day sale, more than 70% of customers’ orders were placed through its mobile app. Sellers on its platform saw sales grow 8-10 times last week compared with non-sale days. Amazon, which has more than 30,000 sellers, declined to specify the number of sellers that generated the surge in sales. via dealstreetasia.com
Amazon may win big in India’s festive shopping season
Amazon.com Inc could emerge as the biggest winner from one of India’s most important festive and shopping seasons, after the e-tailer offered steep discounts, swift delivery and even gold bars to grab market share. Analysts say e-commerce firms in India could make as much as a quarter of their annual sales during this period, with the global experience, logistics network and deep pockets of Amazon putting it in a good position to grab customers from local market leader Flipkart and smaller firm Snapdeal. Amazon has been closing in, said Harish Bijoor, an independent brand expert and business analyst. Via dealstreetasia.com
India: Flipkart’s sale runs into glitches, helping Snapdeal and Amazon
When Flipkart announced that its second big annual sale would be available only on its app, founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal were betting that everything was in place to make this a glitch-free experience unlike last year. Sellers and customers complained of problems, including products not showing up or logistics partners servicing only limited shipments. Such issues have helped rivals Snapdeal and Amazon get more orders in their own discount sales events as all three battle for higher marketshare during the month-long Indian festive season that began Monday. Via dealstreetasia.com
Flipkart founders turn delivery boys as Snapdeal CEO takes potshots
E-commerce giant Flipkart’s founders and top executives are personally delivering orders to customers, as the company attempts to silence critics after drawing flak for problems related to product delivery and payment during the ongoing festive season sales. The move comes after Flipkart faced criticism that its Big Billion Days sales initiative, aimed at boosting revenue during the festive season, ran into problems. It reported that vendors in Agra who faced the problem received an automated email that said the company had to temporarily restrict the order flow for sellers in the area and that it would revert to normal flow as early as possible. Via techcircle.vccircle.com
GoPaisa.com urges online shoppers to go the cashback way
Cashback and coupon site Gopaisa.com is all set to reiterate its brands position and visibility with its new campaign, which humorously plays on its popular kaddu campaign, emphasising on its core philosophy, Why wait for discounts when you can get Cashback every time you shop. The campaign has been conceptualised by Carat Media and has gone on air from October 12, 2015. It prominently reiterates how shopping through the GoPaisa.com mobile app is the smart way to shop and earn extra cashback, and not doing so makes one a kaddu or fool. Via bestmediainfo.com
Flipkart starts seller initiatives in quest to double fashion sales
Flipkart, aiming to double its apparel sales by March 2017, will use insight gained from predictive analysis and machine learning to provide inputs on the latest fashion trends and consumer preferences to sellers on the country’s largest online marketplace. The initiative will enable sellers, especially those with annual sales of less than Rs.20 crore ($31,000), to plan their inventory efficiently and list popular products. For Flipkart, which adds as many as 1,000 brands and sellers every month in the fashion category, it is important that merchants understand what consumers want. Via dealstreetasia.com
Indians Shopped a Lot on Day 1 of Ongoing Festive Sales. Cashkaro Says Transactions Grew 400%
Love it or hate it, but you can’t deny Indian’s love for shopping. This love increases manifold during sales and if the sales are held around Dusehra and Diwali, we go crazy, and here is the proof. The cashback and coupons site, Cashkaro.com, alone observed 400% increase in number of transactions and 450% increase in revenues in comparison to normal days on its platform.
Hold on, these numbers are not specific to Amazon and Flipkart alone. Jabong and Snapdeal are included as well. The company also shared some other interesting observations with us such as: Delhiites shopped the most; it was followed by Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai. The absence of Flipkart Big Billion Day on desktop augmented sales on sites like Amazon.in Shopclues, Paytm…and more. Via businessinsider.in
Snapdeal Diwali Sale Numbers: 5 Million+ Orders, 98.9% Shipped in 24 hrs
We are currently in the midst of crazy online Diwali sale Bonanza If you have seen the newspapers in last couple of days, you would have already noticed that. Currently newspapers have less news and more advertisements from these Indian eCommerce players. Anand tweeted some numbers as to how Snapdeal has fared during the first two days of Snapdeal Diwali Sale, and the numbers (if true) are surely quite impressive. Via trak.in
Why Paytm has a different strategy from Flipkart, Amazon during the festive season
Pursuing a slightly different strategy from Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal is ecommerce major Paytm, formerly a mobile payment solutions startup and now also a marketplace. Armed with a recent fund infusion of around $575 million from Alibaba, the company has a `500 crore ($77 million) budget for this festive season, including marketing and logistics spends. He adds that in the company’s first year as a marketplace, they were trying to ensure consumers get the best deals. Via economictimes.indiatimes.com
Amazon India says October 13 biggest day yet in companys history
Flipkart, India’s biggest etailer, earlier said it had sold 10 lakh (1 million) products in the first 10 hours of its sale. The highest traffic on the Flipkart website emanated from Bengaluru, Delhi and Chennai among metros and Ludhiana, Lucknow and Bhopal among other cities. Via economictimes.indiatimes.com
India Festival Sales Updates Ahead
The 2015 India Festival shopping season is off to a roaring start with impressive numbers all around and growing consumer comfort with online shopping. VCs, investors and founders are smiling though profitability is still on the distant horizon for most of these big e-commerce ventures because of the investment in technology, marketing spending, talent and a hypercompetitive Indian marketplace.
Stay tuned for more Festival sales results in the weeks ahead from your Cashback Industry News.
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