Miles ahead of Amazon? Flipkart claims it got 70% mkt share during festive sales

Flipkart, Amazon and Paytm Mall said smartphones continued to be their largest driver

Flipkart has claimed it was miles ahead of Amazon during the five-day festive sales, called the Big Billion Day, which ended during the midnight of September 24.

The Indian firm was confident it had captured 70 per cent of the country’s online shopping market during this period. While none of the two firms shared their data on gross merchandise value (GMV) or the number of units sold, Amazon refrained from even giving its market share figures.

The preliminary data collated by RedSeer Consulting show that Flipkart is not very far from its claim.

“We had estimated that sales during this period would reach Rs 10,000 crore, but now it looks like they will reach Rs 8,500 crore. Our preliminary analysis shows that Flipkart’s GMV will be close to double that of Amazon during the five-day period,” said Anil Kumar, chief executive officer, Redseer. According to RedSeer’s initial estimates, the e-commerce market during the festive sales has grown 35 per cent over that of last year.

If these figures don’t change much, Flipkart will have come close to achieving its target of $1 billion in sales during the period.

Smaller rival, Paytm Mall, which conducted four-day sales to compete with Amazon and Flipkart, did not share its market share or sales data.

However, the company said it had achieved its targets and would continue offering cashbacks on electronics, smartphones, and other products through the month. When it comes to categories that contributed to maximum sales, all three companies said smartphones continued to be their largest driver. Amazon said sales of phones grew by two and a half times, and according to Paytm Mall, they grew by 12 times. 

Other top-performing categories were fashion, large appliances, and electronics, clocking sales in multiples of what they saw last year. In 2016, too, Flipkart had stayed ahead of Amazon owing to its strong performance during its Big Billion Day sales. 

Kalyan Krishnamurthy, chief executive officer of Flipkart, said they were now looking to maintain a similar lead over Amazon for a sustained period. “We had a 70 per cent share of commerce in these five days, but again it’s not just about Big Billion Day. We’d like to continue this for the next 30 days and eventually for the entire year. From the growth point of view, we’ve roughly doubled our numbers related to transactions,” he said in a talk with Business Standard.

Krishnamurthy, however, added that market share wasn’t the top metric that Flipkart was tracking. He said the firm’s biggest focus was on making customers shop more often, something in which Amazon says it has seen a lot of success through its Prime programme.

The big battle

• According to RedSeer’s initial estimates, the e-commerce market during the festive sales has grown 35% over that of last year
• Flipkart claimed it controlled 70% of the country’s online shopping market during the sales period
• Smaller rival, Paytm Mall, which conducted four-day sales to compete with Amazon and Flipkart, did not share its market share or sales data 
• All three companies said smartphones continued to be their largest driver