Flipkart and Amazon sales beat slowdown blues to lift consumer sentiment

• Amidst an economic slowdown, e-commerce players are having a great run with their festive sales.
• Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said that e-commerce has uplifted the consumer sentiment.
• Flipkart and Amazon have their annual festive sales ongoing – The Big Billion Day sale and The Great Indian Festival Sale.

Indian e-commerce has done what many sectors could not – reversed the dull consumer sentiment, with their festive sales.

“There is no doubt that e-commerce has not only lifted consumer sentiment but has also driven the industry to set new benchmarks. Affordability and value driven themes clearly are the pulsating chords for India and Bharat,” said Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy.

The opening day sales of both the e-commerce companies were twice what they saw in last year’s sale. On Amazon, brands like OnePlus, Samsung and Apple crossed ₹750 crore in sales, within 36 hours. Television sets like the Mi 50 4k was sold out in 30 seconds via flash sale.

Harminder Sahni, founder & MD, Wazir Advisors, agrees with Krishnamurthy that these sales uplifted the consumer sentiment.

“Even if only a small percentage of total Indians buy online, the amount of noise e-commerce players make about sales excites all consumers. They go out to check whether same offers are available offline too and many times they find that these offers are there as well. So yes, while offline retailers are conservative in spending money on advertising they do get the benefit of e-commerce spending,” Sahni told Business Insider.

More importantly, both Flipkart and Amazon also managed to open up new markets. Amazon saw 91% of new customers coming from Tier 2 and 3 towns, whereas Flipkart stated that its number of transacting customers from Tier 2 and beyond have doubled over last year’s sale on the first day.

And it is not just discounts that is bringing in customers. “Affordability programmes such as no-cost EMI, exchange, instant bank discounts and more continue to enable record number of customers to upgrade to premium products. With more first-time shoppers from small towns than ever before and tens of thousands of small sellers across India already seeing success, we are excited,” said Manish Tiwary, Vice President - Category Management, Amazon India.