Festive season: Amazon, Flipkart roll out another sale; focus on smartphones, electronics, appliances

E-commerce companies Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart are back with another round of festive sales. While Amazon announced Happiness Upgrade Days, which started October 24 and would last till October 28, Flipkart’s Big Diwali Sale will take place from October 29 to November 4. Its Dussehra Sale is already underway from October 22 to October 28.  However, Amazon’s latest sale is part of its month-long festivity that began October 17. India’s e-commerce sector had generated $3.1 billion in sales during the first 4.5 days (October 15-19) of the first leg of festive sales out of the forecasted $4 billion, according to consulting firm RedSeer.

Amazon said that customers would be able to choose from more than 1,100 new product launches from top brands while it “continues to empower SMBs with a wide selection of products from lakhs of sellers under various programs such as Local Shops, Amazon Launchpad, Amazon Saheli, and Amazon Karigar,” according to a statement. Customers would get up to 40 per cent off on smartphones, up to 65 per cent off on large appliances and TVs, and up to 80 per cent off on Amazon Fashion and Home & Kitchen products. On the other hand, Flipkart’s Big Diwali Sale would also bet on smartphones with no-cost EMIs and exchange offers. Also, there would be up to 80 per cent off on electronics and accessories, TVs and appliances, etc., according to its website. Its ongoing Dussehra sale focusing on TVs is offering up to 65 per cent discount.

Also read: Flipkart picks up 7.8% in Aditya Birla Fashion for Rs 1,500 crore, signals robust retail growth

“Despite Covid and job losses, customers are still hungry for value deals not just in phones and appliances categories but for aggressive deals lined up in others as well such as fashion, furniture, grocery, and even work-from-home. So, there is a lot of customer confidence especially if they are getting a good value for the money spent. Along with this, the safety to order online in current times has led to the consumption recovery,” Mrigank Gutgutia, Director, E-commerce, RedSeer had told Financial Express Online. Forrester, on the other hand, had estimated e-commerce sales to be around $4.8 billion in the first week itself of October 15 to 21 out of overall around $6.5 billion sales expected between October 15 and November 15.