Flipkart and Amazon claim highest festive season sales ever
2 min read . Updated: 05 Oct 2019, 12:05 AM IST
Premium- Both companies benefited from demand from tier II and III cities, as well as categories like smartphones and fashion
- Amazon.in said it saw its biggest Great Indian Festival with smartphones and fashion growing 15-fold and 5-fold, respectively
Bengaluru: The battle for the No. 1 slot in the Indian e-commerce space continues, with both Amazon India and Walmart-Flipkart claiming their highest sales ever in the six-day festive season sale that ended on Friday.
Both benefited from higher demand from tier II and III cities, as well as categories such as smartphones and fashion.
Flipkart’s The Big Billion Days says started Saturday night (8pm) for its Flipkart Plus customers, while Amazon India’s Great Indian Festival sales began at noon the same day for Prime subscribers. Both companies opened the sales for all customers at midnight.
Flipkart said it was an “extraordinary" sales period for the company. “We have more than doubled our transaction units, customers from tier II, III cities, which was the biggest focus for us. We believe we are closing the six days (of sales) with 70-75% of the festive market share. New customer growth is 50-60%," Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart Group, said over a phone call. He, however, did not divulge the volume or value of the transactions.
The company claimed it clocked 70 billion views during the six days.
“Whether it is the uptake of the Hindi interface or the adoption of our affordability constructs, engagement constructs like gaming, consumers have engaged with brands they love like never before," said Krishnamurthy.
Amazon.in said it saw its biggest Great Indian Festival with smartphones and fashion growing 15-fold and 5-fold, respectively. The large appliances category grew eight times and nearly half the sales came from lower tier cities.
“The first wave of the Great Indian Festival was our biggest celebration ever with Amazon.in witnessing highest share of transacting customers and purchases across all marketplaces in India; orders from 99.4% pin codes; over 65,000 sellers from 500+ cities receiving orders in just five days and customers from over 15,000 pin codes joining Prime," said Amit Agarwal, senior vice president and country head, Amazon India, in a statement. About 50% of Amazon India’s customers purchased appliances via EMI. Echo devices saw a record 70-fold growth in what is the biggest sale ever for Amazon devices in India.
According to a report by research agency Nielsen, between 28 September and 3 October, Amazon.in had the highest share of transacting customers, order share and value share across all marketplaces in India. It had a value share of 46%, order share of 42% and a transacting user share of 50%. The figures for Flipkart Group, which includes Myntra and Jabong, were 46%, 38% and 37%, respectively.
