Amazon claims supremacy in smartphone sales

160 exclusive phone model tie-ups till date

Amazon India on Friday said it had become the most preferred destination for buying smartphones and accessories.

During the first day of its Great Indian Sale, the company sold 16 times as many smartphones as on a usual day, it added. 

The declaration comes a day after rival Flipkart claimed it sold over 1.3 million mobile phones in India in the first 20 hours of its festive sales, double the number of orders compared to the same period last year. 

Amazon also witnessed growth in the premium smartphones category. Orders rose 300 per cent in Tier 1 markets, 450 per cent in Tier 2 markets and 600 per cent in Tier 3 markets over the last year. Smartphones in the range of Rs 10,000 witnessed over 170 per cent growth in sales.

“The smartphones category on Amazon.in has grown by 2.5 times over last Diwali during the first two days of the Great Indian sale. We have been growing at 100 per cent, year on year,” the company’s spokesperson said.

Amazon sells over 160 models of mobile phones on its e-marketplace and has conducted a slew of launches in the last few months, including Nokia 6, BlackBerry - KEYone (Limited Edition Black), OnePlus 5 Gold, Apple 6 32 GB Gold and Kult Beyond.

“We have launched the highest number of exclusives in the last one month. The most recent was Samsung Note 8. We launched 12 new mobile phones from various companies during the festive sales,” the company said.

Many of the companies have seen their sales growing more than 100 per cent in the first few hours of the sale. 

“We have grown three times over the last Diwali sale on Amazon,” said Vikas Agarwal, general manager, India, OnePlus.

Amazon also announced a partnership with Reliance Jio for an exclusive offer for iPhones. “Customers who buy the iPhone 8, 8+ or X from Reliance Digital on Amazon.in will be eligible for 70 per cent assured exchange value when they upgrade their devices in 2018 to the latest iPhone. Pre-orders have already started on Amazon.in and we will start shipping from September 29,” the spokesperson added.