AMAZON ADVANCES FESTIVE SALE TO OCT 3 TO MATCH RIVAL FLIPKART

BENGALURU: The coming online festive sales season is turning into an unusual battle between India’s top two e-commerce companies to reach discount shoppers first.

Amazon India on Sunday advanced its flagship Great Indian Festival sale to October 3, the same as rival Flipkart, which on Saturday advanced its own Big Billion Days sale from October 7 to October 3. The Flipkart move itself was prompted by Amazon setting its sale to begin from October 4, three days ahead of Flipkart’s initial date of October 7.

The Amazon sale will see over 850,000 sellers participate and 1,000 product launches across categories. Walmart-owned Flipkart on Saturday promptly moved its launch date to match Amazon. Flipkart will be running its Big Billion Days sale for eight days, instead of six, with the event ending on October 10. Amazon hasn’t specified the closing date for the sale event.

To be sure, the first week of the festive season sale has a lot riding on it. “Our top priority remains customer trust and the interest of our sellers, especially the lakhs of small sellers and the tens of thousands of local shop owners across India. We continue to innovate for our partners, small businesses and customers, as they gear up for the upcoming festive season. The Amazon Great Indian Festival will now start from 3 October, and as always, Prime members will have early access,” said an Amazon spokesperson on Sunday. Meanwhile, Flipkart group chief executive officer Kalyan Krishnamurthy told employees on Saturday in an internal memo about the change in the launch date of the Big Billion Days sale.

“Based on consumer behaviour, we have been observing, we know today they are focused on value and quality, and we are determined to deliver on this front. The Big Billion Days is our commitment to meet these requirements safely and efficiently.