In one of the biggest sales days in Indian online retail
market, Flipkart and Snapdeal on Monday sold products worth an estimated Rs.
600 crore each even as customers complained about technical glitches, while
global e-retailer Amazon continued its own pre-Diwali campaign.
Flipkart claimed it sold products worth $100 million (over
Rs. 600 crore) within 10 hours, while Snapdeal pegged its sales at Rs. 1 crore
a minute-- which translates into a figure similar to Filpkart's. There was no
sales figure from Amazon which is running a three-day discount campaign.
Flipkart co-founders, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal said in
a joint statement that, "We got a billion hits on our site today and
achieved our 24 hour sales target of $100 million in GMV (gross merchandise
value) in just 10 hours.
Sale on Flipkart started at 8 am and most of the products
under scheme were sold by afternoon.
"The Big Billion Day is an unprecedented day for us as
this is the biggest sale ever in India. With a range of exciting offers on
quality products at disruptive prices available throughout the sale period, they
have created a history in Indian e-commerce platform.
"Snapdeal had a record breaking day of sales on October
6, 2014. We witnessed sales of over crore rupees a minute, with lakhs of products
being sold in a single day," its co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl said.
Customers, however, complained of technical glitches and
slow response on Flipkart website. They took to social media websites to
express their dismay over the performance of the Flipkart website during the
sale scheme.
Some customers complained that they did not receive their
order details despite paying for the product they bought.
Their technology team has been dedicated towards addressing
errors and providing constant support to accommodate the largest scale of
traffic and customer visits e-commerce has witnessed across the country.
The company offered huge discount on mobile phones, consumer
electronics, gold coins and other merchandise products.
Under the sale, Flipkart offered Nokia 1020 at Rs. 19,999
which is about 60 per cent less than its launch price.
Similarly, the company offered heavy discounts on books.
Some products were on offer at discount of over 90 per cent.
Snapdeal claimed that they sold 10 products per second
across categories between October 3 and October 5 but did not disclose the
total sales value.
They claimed that the products selling frequency was too
high,
Smartphone – Sold every 6 seconds,
Laptop – Sold every 20 seconds
Tablet – Sold every 30 seconds
Saree – Sold every 30 second
Footwears – Sold every 10 seconds etc.
Laptop – Sold every 20 seconds
Tablet – Sold every 30 seconds
Saree – Sold every 30 second
Footwears – Sold every 10 seconds etc.
"We saw a great wave of enthusiasm from the shoppers
and have witnessed a spectacular growth of over 100 per cent in sales across
categories in a short period of time.
While categories like Fashion and Electronics continued to
deliver record sales, the results of other categories like Home Decor and
Furnishings have beaten our expectations as well," snapdeal.com Senior
vice president Sandeep Komaravelly said.
