E-tailers jump bandwagon to boost sales with Black Friday offers

Like all things American, Black Friday madness that began after Thanksgiving Thursday took over the Indian shoppers as several online players as well as offline stores on Friday jumped on the bandwagon to boost sales and add new customers in the festive season.

From Amazon to H&M, the Black Friday offers flooded people's emails and message boxes on smartphones in the country.

Amazon offered up to 60 per cent off on top international brands across categories like electronics, fashion, beauty and wellness products and accessories.

B2C fashion e-commerce platform SHEIN, online beauty and wellness destination Nykaa.com and online fashion site koovs.com (giving flat 60 per cent off with a code) also offered Black Friday sales on various designer brands.

Retail player H&M offered 20 per cent discount on all products and no code was needed.

Chinese company Xiaomi offered Black Friday discounts till December 2 on various devices, including Redmi K20 series, Redmi Note 7 Pro, Poco F1, Mi Home security camera. Mi LED smart bulb and Mi Band 3, etc.

Other vendors like Realme and Nokia were also offering Black Friday sales.

According to experts, the Black Friday sale concept is fast catching up with the Indian shoppers, especially among the millennials and young buyers, as marketers offer deals to make the most of these days post Dussehra and Diwali season sales.

"Indian consumers are value conscious and keenly seek attractive discounts. Retailers and online players in India are latching onto Black Friday as an occasion to seek new customers, to showcase their new offerings and essentially stitch a better consumer connect," Prabhu Ram, Head-Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CMR, told IANS.

Although the Black Friday sales in India are currently miniscule if compared to the US or other countries, the trend is fast catching up.

"This trend is also an indication of the strategy to minimise or overcome dependence on the traditional Diwali sales window," Ram noted.

The momentum e-commerce players and retailers saw till Diwali died down in November. They are now gearing up for fresh sale season, starting from December 1, that will continue till Christmas and New Year.

Earlier, Amazon, Flipkart sold goods worth Rs 19,000 crore in festive sale between September 29 and October 4 as the festive season kicked off.

The festive month of October brought a big cheer for those serving the mobile, fashion and consumer electronics industry as sales in these categories saw a massive boost on various e-commerce platforms.

According to industry analysts, mobile once again ruled the roost, catering to nearly 50 per cent of all online sales during the month.

The e-tailers and offline stores in India are now aiming to gain from four days of Super Bowl of shopping that includes Cyber Monday -- a marketing term for the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday created by retailers to encourage people to shop online.