Flipkart eyes up to $1.7 bn from BBD sales
BENGALURU: Flipkart is targeting sales of $1.5-1.7 billion in its annual Big Billion Days (BBD) sale, nearly double of what it did last year, three people aware of the online retailer’s plans said.
Flipkart chief executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy has set aggressive targets for his top lieutenants overseeing key businesses such as smartphones, fashion and large appliances, the people mentioned above said, requesting anonymity. The projected target also takes into account sales from fashion retailers Myntra and Jabong, both owned by Flipkart.
In its five-day BBD sale last year, Flipkart generated gross sales of more than ₹5,000 crore driven by booming sales of Apple Inc.’s iphones, Xiaomi phones and VU televisions.
Flipkart typically generates most of its business during BBD from high-value categories such as smartphones and large appliances.
The people mentioned above added that the targets might be revised right before BBD, likely to be held in October.
The sales push comes at a time when the online retail market has witnessed a pickup. Mint reported on Wednesday that the growth at Flipkart and Amazon is a clear indicator that momentum in the $18 billion e-commerce market has accelerated after a revival in the second half of last year. In 2016, e-commerce expansion had slowed sharply.
The strong showing by the two companies so far this year was primarily driven by multiple sale events that offer big discounts on smartphones, televisions, clothing and other products. The e-commerce market is widely expected to continue accelerating over the next few quarters because of faster internet connections, increasing familiarity with online shopping among consumers and heavy investments by Flipkart and Amazon on discounting, advertising and supply-chain expansion.
Flipkart typically starts preparing for BBD as early as May, ramping up logistics and inventory, hiring thousands of temporary workers and upgrading the technology that runs its marketplace.