Flipkart sees bumper festive sale; Amazon receives orders from customers from over 99% of pin codes in the country

With festive sales drawing to a close, e-tailing giants Amazon and Flipkart have claimed bumper sale on their platforms, and that they were ahead of the competition, as they received orders from customers from over 99 percent of the pin codes in the country. Citing a survey by Kantar IMRB and other reports, Amazon India Senior Vice President and Country Head Amit Agarwal said Amazon emerged as “the most visited and transacted shopping destination in India this festive season” (10-15 October, 24-28 October and 2-5 November). “With 99.3 percent of pin codes placing at least one order, 89 percent of new customers coming from smaller towns, almost 70,000 small and medium businesses getting at least one order and new Prime memberships growing by nearly 2X, we are humbled that India trusts us to find, discover and buy anything online,” he said. Asked about another report stating that Flipkart cornering 51 percent share of the festive sale between 9-14 October, Agarwal said, “we don’t comment on reports that are based on non-scientific methodologies”. [caption id=“attachment_4454461” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] The said industry report had stated that Amazon.in had a 32 per share in the first leg of the festive sale before Dusshera. Both Walmart-backed Flipkart and Amazon have claimed record-breaking sales numbers across categories like smartphones, large appliances and fashion during their festive sales. “The current sale (1-5 November) is already more than 2X of our Big Billion Days sale this year. We were the clear leaders in the fashion category… we had all brands (of smartphones) except one…competition is nowhere close to that,” Flipkart Head of Growth Smrithi Ravichandran said. She added that customers on an average spent Rs 7,500 on various purchases during this festive sale and that its gross merchandise value (GMV) was up 90 percent over last year. Amazon said it had record sales across categories during its great Indian festival celebration from 10-15 October, with a 12-hour prime early access to its prime members. “We had an overwhelming response to the fifth edition of the fest, with sales in the first 36 hours surpassing the first wave of last year and exceeded our plans,” said Bengaluru Amazon on 18 October. “We accounted for half of the e-tailer industry’s GMV, driven by higher sales in mobiles and fashion verticals, which grew 70 per cent and 78 per cent,” said Flipkart last month “Smart-phones had their biggest season, with Xiaomi selling over 1 million devices in a day followed by OnePlus with sales of Rs 400 crore in a day and premium phones sales exceeding a month of all India online sales,” Amazon India head Amit Agarwal had said. With inputs from agencies