Hindustan Times ST (Jaipur)

Flipkart eyes up to $1.7 bn from Big Billion Days sales

- Anirban Sen feedback@livemint.com

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 Rs5,000 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 company did not immediatel­y respond to an email seeking comment.

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.

For Flipkart, the BBD sale is by far the most important event on its annual calendar and the online retailer typically channels all its resources behind the Diwali sale. Under Krishnamur­thy, Flipkart has been even more aggressive­ly chasing growth from BBD, as the company views it as a springboar­d of sorts that sets the momentum for the next few quarters.

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.

Over the past two years, Flipkart has beaten rival Amazon India during the Diwali sale.

To be sure, Amazon is also sparing no expense to win the festive season sale face-off with its own flagship five-day Great Indian Festival sale. Mint reported on Tuesday that Amazon had pumped in ₹2,700 crore (nearly $386 million) into its Indian business, bringing its total investment in India to roughly $4 billion at least till date.

BENGALURU:

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from India