Diwali bonanza: Retail websites race to lure customers during the festive season

If you’ve been longing to buy a laptop, smartphone or camera, the Diwali season might be the best time to treat yourself and your family. As online retailers are vying to get more people onto their websites and make the most of this festive season, it’s win-win for both buyers and sellers with abounding sales and attractive discounts. Snapdeal has hourly Diwali Bumper sales where it’s giving away products including home appliances and other consumer electronics at rock-bottom prices. The Apple Macbook Air, retailing at Rs 72, 500, was available for Rs 49,999 during one of Snapdeal’s hourly sales. Flipkart’s flash sale, which it’s calling The Big Billion Day sale, displays five electronic items at huge discounts for limited time intervals. For example, 16GB Transcend JetFlash pen drives are going at Re 1, while the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 with an original price of Rs 14,790 is going at Rs 1,390. These products are currently out of stock, but those are the kind of discounts Flipkart is promising. Flipkart is also conducting The Big Billion Wishes Contest where buyers stand a chance to win a prize each day by adding products to their wishlists and sharing the promotion with their Facebook friends. Amazon has set up a Diwali Bazaar for electronics as well as clothes, jewellery and other festive items. The Google Nexus 5, for example is selling for Rs 22,999. As with Flipkart and Snapdeal, Amazon’s Diwali Bazaar sale is also set for a limited time. Choosing to pay online rather than opt for cash-on-delivery, can also save you extra bucks. You get 10% cashback on state Bank credit and debit cards on Amazon. Citibank and Standard Chartered cards get 10% off when used for shopping on Flipkart. Snapdeal is offering cashbacks on almost all credit and debit card payments, though it may vary for certain products.