Flash Sale Fiasco: Flipkart Apologises To Its Customers

Following the flash sale fiasco, online retailer Flipkart’s founders apologised to customers through an e-mail. Flipkart’s customers had complained of frequent website crashes, insufficient stock and inflated prices.

In an email to customers, founders Sachin and Binny Bansal took responsibility for the problems and apologised, saying “Yesterday was a big day for us. And, we really wanted it to be a great day for you. But at the end of the day, we know your experience was less than pleasant.” They added, “We did not live up to the promises we made and for that, we are really and truly sorry.”

The founders also explained the reasons behind each of the problems. They attributed the fiasco to an overwhelming response from customers, which was far more than they had anticipated. They said that the company had prepared for 20 times its usual traffic, but even that was not sufficient due to high traffic on the website. They assured of doing a better job the next time.

The company is also assessing the damage caused to the brand’s reputation. The founders have also sent another mail to top executives to discuss the situation.

However, in spite of all these, the Big Billion Day sale still helped Flipkart achieve gross volumes of about $100 million (Rs 600 crore) in 10 hours.