E-tailers claim steep jump in festive sales

BENGALURU: As the much hyped annual sale events of ecommerce companies ended on Thursday, all the top players touted strong growth numbers as they tried to best each other in a cut-throat online retail market. Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal circulated various numbers to showcase the success of their flagship sale at a time when the industry has plateaued and desperately needs a growth bump.

Giving the country's largest web retailer's final tally, Flipkart co-founder & CEO Binny Bansal said the company registered 70% higher sales than last year by selling 15.5 million units across the group (Flipkart, Myntra, Jabong). Amazon, a day earlier, had said its Indian business trebled as the Jeff Bezos-led company saw 15 million units being purchased in its five-day sale. Snapdeal on Thursday said it had sold over 11 million products during the sale, without commenting on its GMV .

Indian e-commerce players are expected to shore up around Rs 12,000 crore from the overall sale season in October, up from Rs 7,000 crore that they registered in the same a month last year.

Speaking to TOI, Bansal said Flipkart surpassed its competitors this year, making it the clear leader of the local e-tailing market with only one-third marketing spends compared to others. "We have not sold eggs or a detergent bar in order to touch numbers. We have sold actual units of goods which are purchased specifically during festive season. Growing 70% is high compared to last year," Bansal said, taking an obvious jibe at arch-rival Amazon.

The Seattle-based e-tailer, which has been doubling down with all possible ammunition to win the India market, said its FMCG products were one of the top-selling categories. Bansal's dig was directed towards the sale of consumer products, which are typically low priced compared to smartphones, electronics, fashion and large appliances.

Flipkart claimed it sold 2.5 million smartphones, one of the largest categories for the company, after having lost out on multiple exclusive launches to rival Amazon in the prece ding months.

The battle for supremacy of the market won't be confi ned to only touting numbers to outdo each other. The Flip kart top brass, including ex ecutive chairman Sachin Bansal and CEO Binny Ban sal, will hit the road on Fri day and deliver goods to customers to up their game against Amazon. Sachin will be delivering products in his hometown Chandigarh, while Binny will deliver iPhone7 in Bengaluru.

Ananth Narayanan, CEO of Myntra, Nitin Seth, chief administrative officer at Flipkart, and Kalyan Krishnamurthy, who's been heading the company's commerce division, will also go around delivering shipments. Last year too, the senior leadership had gone out to deliver products following the Big Billion Day sale.

Analysts continued to point out that Flipkart seemed to have maintained its lead against Amazon. The American e-tailer is expected to have closed its five-day sale with gross sales worth $400 million while Flipkart may have clocked around $550 million worth of business on a group level, including its fashion focused subsidiaries Myntra and Jabong.

When asked, Bansal did not comment on the overall GMV of Flipkart at the end of Big Billion Day sale but said that the company had surpassed its internal target by 40%.