Flipkart site crashes as orders surge on discount offers

The website of India's largest online e-retailer Flipkart.com Monday crashed within hours of opening for business, as millions of customers logged on to place orders for a plethora of products and brands offered at huge discounts.

"There was an internal server issue due to which we had problem in receiving orders online for some time due to surge in traffic. We have rectified the glitch and increased the capacity. The site is up and accessible," a company spokesperson told IANS here.

As Monday's date - October 6 or 6.10 coincided with 610, the flat number from where Flipkart's co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal began their journey in 2007 to float the country's first e-commerce firm as a start-up in this tech hub - the company decided to offer a host of retail products at huge discounts.

With the company splashing full-page advertisements in leading newspapers across the country, offering "bumper discounts" and "crazy deals" on consumer durables, electronic goods and a variety of utility products at unbeatable prices, there was a mad rush for placing orders, as some of the most-sought after products were available on first-cum-first basis due to limited stocks.

"A day-long shopping event that will unite a billion people in the country through unbeatable offers, unbelievable discounts, lucky draws and out of the world deals," the company claimed in its sneak peek ahead of the special sales on the 'Big Billion Day'.

With 15 million products across 70 categories, including books, media, consumer electronics and lifestyle, Flipkart offers delivery services like in-a-day guarantee across 50 cities and same-day-guarantee in 13 cities across the country.

The e-retailer boasts of 22-million registered users with four-million daily visits and delivers five million shipments per month.

The company has deployed a whopping 10,000 field staff to ensure all transacted orders reach its customers on time.