Online retailers gear up for festive showdown; expect record-breaking sales

While Flipkart aims to meet the demand surge with same-day delivery from its 20,000+ SKUs in 20 cities, Amazon plans to showcase millions of products from 1.6 million sellers across various categories

The fight for consumer wallet share is expected to see e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart bring out their best offers. Amazon on Wednesday announced that its small and medium business (SMB) seller base has launched over 9,500 new products for its annual flagship sale event, Amazon Great Indian Festival this year. Flipkart indicated its flagship sale The Big Billion Day will see 160 million products from Shopsy, its value commerce platform.

More importantly, Flipkart has said that it is gearing up to meet the festive demand for same-day delivery with over 20,000 stock-keeping units(SKU), across 20 cities ahead of the sale event.

Amazon is gearing its sellers as part of Amazon’s seller programs – Karigar, Saheli, Local Shops and Launchpad. The company has introduced a suite of tools and initiatives to ensure its seller base is prepared for the anticipated uptick in demand. Brands like Alpino, Phool, Aazol, Taasha Craft, and others, will be showcasing their products on Amazon.in.

Amazon readies for major sale

Amazon anticipates that this year’s sale event, starting on September 27, will be its largest to date. The e-commerce giant plans to showcase millions of products from over 1.6 million sellers across various categories, including home, kitchen, grocery, apparel, and more.

“With more than 16 lakh sellers, offering crores of products, our customers can expect great value, extensive selection, and reliable delivery to 100 per cent serviceable pin codes across India,” said Amit Nanda, Director, Selling Partner Services, Amazon India.

To prepare sellers for the expected surge in customer demand, Amazon is offering SMBs a suite of new tools and features like Sale Event Planner, which assists sellers in managing and executing major sale events, and AI-powered innovations such as Imaging Services and Listing Assistants. Amazon has also introduced Gen-AI-based Listing Experience, which can enable sellers to easily list and effectively showcase their products. 

More tools for seller success

While ‘The Self-Service Registration’ (SSR 2.0) simplifies onboarding with multi-language support and streamlined registration and invoicing processes, the Sale Event Planner helps sellers craft compelling deals and provides valuable insights for effective inventory planning.

Amazon’s New Seller Success Center offers detailed guidance on setting up online shops and utilising features like Ads, Prime, and deals. Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) will make it easier for sellers to reach more customers by using Amazon’s delivery network.

Flipkart, on the other hand, is betting big on video commerce, along with the use of machine learning for better route planning, faster sorting, and quick pick-up. The firm recently started a ‘Live Commerce’ stream, which reportedly garnered 1.4 million views in two hours. This is the highest recorded engagement to date for a live stream on Flipkart. Products such as watches, Bandhini sarees, T-shirts, and kitchen sets that were featured in the stream saw a 20X spike in searches during the stream, compared to the pre-stream period.

AI and new centers to boost sales

Artificial Intelligence will also make its presence felt during this festive sale season. Flipkart is making use of generative AI-enabled 3D product explainer video. Stylemate feature uses multimodal AI to help users find similar-looking products.

And to meet the festive demand this year, Amazon India has added three new fulfillment centres to its existing pan-India operations network, which includes over 43 million cubic feet of storage space and sort centres in 19 states. It has about 2,000 delivery stations, Amazon Air service, and partnerships with Indian Railways and India Post.

Last year, Amazon India saw 1.1 billion customer visits on the platform during the event and almost 4 million new customers. The company expects to surpass these records this year.

Meanwhile, its rival Flipkart witnessed a record 1.4 billion customers visiting its platform during its flagship festival sales event ‘The Big Billion Days 2023’. This year, the company has launched 11 new fulfillment centres across nine cities to meet the anticipated festival season demand.