Flipkart is ensuring it emerges numero uno post this festive season

Flipkart claims that its Big Billion Day sale, which is starting next week, will be a trouble-free experience for the customers this year as the company has upgraded its technology, logistics and seller-base this time.

The chief business officer at Flipkart, Ankit Nagori says, "We are ramping up our logistics and during the festive season we will have over 19,000 delivery boys, including those from Ekart, delivering to over 40,000 pin codes across India." The company is also adding three warehouses including one at Dadri in New Delhi.

Interestingly, Flipkart has restricted the Big Billion Day sale to app only. Why? Perhaps they are doing it because they get around 75% of its traffic through mobile-only devices and Nagori expects it to go up to over 80% during the discounts.

Flipkart’s Big Billion Day last year saw a merchandise of over Rs 600 crore in just 10 hours, as per several media reports. But it seems like the e-tailer won’t give the consumers any chance to complaint after its one-day flash sale was spoiled due to technical and logistics glitches in 2014 and Flipkart had to apologise to its customers.

The firm is also offering attractive offers to its sellers who will ensure enough stock and on-time product delivery. Four outperforming sellers will get return flight tickets to Paris and over a dozen star sellers stand a chance to win iPads.

Flipkart has also installed its own data centres across major metros to manage online traffic itself while last year it outsources vendors which resulted into server crashes.

"We have invested heavily in our chat application Ping and image- based search to improve the shopping experience," said Nagori, who joined the eight-year-old company in 2010. This year the sale will be conducted for five days, starting October 13. It will include Myntra, the online fashion retailer Flipkart acquired last year.

As estimated by the business daily, India's leading eCommerce companies like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and Quikr are expected to spend over Rs 2,000 crore this year on marketing and advertising, which is 53% more than last year.

However, Nagroi refused to reveal the company’s marketing budget for the October-December period. "There will be a multi-channel approach with TV, print, outdoor and digital and this time we will specifically target tier-2 towns with our offline campaign," he added.

While product launches in categories such as electronics, appliances and mobiles are expected, throwaway sales such as mobile phones for Re 1 that were offered last year may not be available this time. "Rather than the marketing deals (such Re 1 sales), we will offer significant number of products at a lower price to a larger base of customers," Nagori said.

Last year, sellers were sent deactivation mails after the supply chain ran out of capacity. This year the company is asking sellers to stock a large number of goods in its fulfilment centres. About 40,000 retailers are expected to sell through Flipkart during the sale. The company has launched a 'turbocharge' campaign to add 10,000 sellers in the next three months, through which it will offer free cataloguing and listing support.

The company is also aiding sellers in faster loan approvals for buying stock. "We have been continuously preparing sellers to manage high-traffic during this event. After all, these three months offer the best time of the year if anyone wants to make extra money," Nagori added.