The Big Sale: Flipkart beats Amazon
BENGALURU: Flipkart Ltd again beat arch-rival Amazon India in the festival season sales battle.
In its five-day Big Billion Days sale that ended on Sunday, Flipkart generated gross sales of more than ₹5,000 crore driven by booming sales of Apple Inc’s iPhones, Xiaomi phones and VU televisions, according to two people familiar with the matter. Flipkart’s numbers include sales at Myntra and Jabong, its specialty fashion retail businesses. Amazon India (Amazon Seller Service Pvt Ltd) generated gross sales of ₹2,500-2,700 crore in its four-day Great Indian Festival sale last week, three other people familiar with the matter said.
Amazon disputed the figures mentioned above. Amazon said it is well ahead of Flipkart on metrics such as app downloads, desktop visits and mobile website visits. According to data from market intelligence firm SimilarWeb, which tracks website traffic, Amazon India’s desktop visits stood at 276 million for the quarter ended June 30, compared with 167.6 million for Flipkart. For its mobile website, Amazon India recorded 311 million visits during the June quarter, compared with 157 million for Flipkart, according to SimilarWeb. Amazon also said its methodology of calculating gross sales could be different from Flipkart’s. Gross sales refers to the value of goods sold on a platform, not net revenue.
“The recently concluded Great Indian Festival has been our biggest shopping event till date with a remarkable spike in customer acquisition from tier II and tier III cities across India. We saw a tremendous customer response across categories,” Manish Tiwary, vice-president, category management, Amazon India, said in an email through a spokesperson.
Flipkart also disputed the numbers cited above and said its sales were higher, without specifying the exact number.
“Big Billion Days (BBD) is India’s biggest shopping festival that has over the years played a pivotal role in expanding the e-commerce market in India. This year’s BBD, we have set new standards by doubling our sales versus last year, stepping up our geographic coverage and vastly increasing the reach of affordability constructs like No cost EMI (equated monthly instalment), Product Exchange and Buy Back Guarantee. We believe, that our market share during the BBD event will be more than 70% of the online market,” a Flipkart spokesperson said in a statement.