In a first, Amazon’s Great Indian Festival sale to be ‘month-long’ this year starting October 17

Days after Walmart-owned Flipkart announced dates for its Big Billion Days festive sale, Amazon India on Tuesday came out with the date for its annual mega sale event Great Indian Festival Sale. The sale would go live on October 17, 2020, however, contrary to customary five-six days of the festive sale, Amazon this year, for the first time, will host the event for an entire month. “It is a season of festivities. So, it will be a month-long celebration of festivities. Our sellers are putting together things attractive to various regions,” Manish Tiwary, Vice President, Amazon India told reporters in a virtual briefing.

Customers would be able to shop from more than 4 crore products from Amazon’s SME sellers from over 20,000 local shops in 100 cities out of its more than 6.5 lakh seller base, Amazon said in a statement. The sale would begin 24 hours early for Amazon Prime members loaded with discounts and cashback. Amazon would offer 5 per cent additional cashback on minimum purchase of Rs 1,000 on the first order. The company is also offering up to Rs 100 cashback on minimum purchase of Rs 500 from small businesses. The reward can be redeemed on the first day of the sale event or during the early access hours for Prime members.

Great Indian Festival would offer up to 80 per cent off on over 1,000 brands on Amazon Fashion, and home & kitchen products, more than 6,000 deals on electronic and accessories, up to 70 per cent discount on books, toys, gaming etc. Moreover, there’s separate up to 70 per cent off on over 20,000 products by Amazon Brands, up to 65 per cent discount on TV and appliances and up to 50 per cent off on Echo, Fire TV and Kindle. To attract customers with a limited budget, the sale would offer 10 per cent instant discount for HDFC Bank credit and debit card customers along with no-cost EMI by Bajaj Finserv.

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To cater to the expected surge in demand this year, Amazon has also strengthened its delivery infrastructure. The company has added nearly 200 delivery stations and “tens of thousands of delivery partners’ to its network. Amazon also enhanced its fulfilment footprint with over 60 fulfilment centres in 15 states with a storage capacity of more than 32 million cubic feet.

Meanwhile, Flipkart on Tuesday also announced 200 ‘special edition’ products, created in partnership with over 100 brands, for its Big Billion Days sale between October 16-21, 2020. The products will be available only during the sale duration with early access for Flipkart Plus consumers on October 15. The special edition sale was first introduced by the company last year. “The phenomenal response we received from the entire ecosystem for the Big Billion Days Specials in 2019 encouraged us to partner with an even larger number of brands and celebrities to make it extra special for consumers this year,” said Nandita Sinha, Vice President – Events, Engagement & Merchandising at Flipkart in a statement.