Flipkart's Big Billion Day a watershed event for Indian consumer

The Big Billion Day sale marked an unprecedented event in the e-commerce world, the equivalent of the one-paisa mobile phone call

The shift from high-street to e-street in India was already underway. However, October 6, 2014 -- when consumers got bombarded with wide-ranging offers across the spectrum -- could prove to be the one-paisa-phone-call moment for the fledgling Indian e-commerce industry. 

 

Call rates dipping to less than a paisa per second saw an unprecedented 800 million Indians embrace mobile phones. 

 

Indian e-commerce players, led by market leader Flipkart, are attempting to achieve a similar feat. And October 6 was the landmark event in this journey. 

 

Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon -- the three biggest e-commerce Indian players -- hosted big sales on wide-ranging products they offer. To ensure hits, (what is called footfalls in retail parlance) these companies had a set big marketing campaign across print and electronic media, where they published such mouth-watering prices that ensured anybody who saw that ad would visit their store (website).

 

And it worked. On October 6 -- which was a public holiday on account of Eid-ul-Azha and part of a long weekend before Diwali -- Flipkart saw more hits than Facebook, which is India's most-visited website.  And its mobile app topped the charts on Apple's App Store and Android's Play Store, after Flipkart's mobile application -- whose interface was tweaked for what it called the BigBillionDay sale — was downloaded more than a million times.

 

Online retailers were smart in pricing, offering discounts on already heavily-discounted products, such as USB drives which were offered for Re 1, or premium headphones which was offered for Rs 99, or even best-selling mobile phones which was offered for Rs 900; however, most of these items were already at low inventory levels, which meant that hardly anyone managed to get their hands on these so-called 'steal deal, and leading to many disappointed buyers called the sale a farce.   

Most other products were sold at usual rates, or a lttle less. But the excitement ensured most consumers who visited the sites ended up buying, or at least attempting to buy, something. 

 

Also, deals were spread across the day, which meant frequent revisits throughout the day from customers. And the mobile apps also provided equal or even better shopping experience than the desktop website, which ensured people were glued to the site even while on the go.

 

And the offers didn't just end with the three online retailers. Other players operating in the e-commerce space also kept consumer excited. Mobile payments firm such as Paytm and Freecharge were offering attractive rebates on every recharge. While restaurant-ordering firm Tastykhana offered a huge 70% discount on all orders routed through it.

 

And it all complemented each other. Thanks to the cashback offered by mobile recharge firms, a lot of first-time consumers were able to activate internet-packs on their phones for cheap. Thanks to that they could download and surf all the mobile-apps of online retailers. And after all the heavy-shopping they could offer food at a fraction of cost from their favourite restaurant. 

 

Given all the freebies, why would a consumer want to stay on High Street?