Flipkart keeps largest market share, outruns Amazon in festive season sale

Maintaining its lead over its rival Amazon India in a market during the festive season sale, where total sales are estimated to have surged by up to 40 percent over last year’s events, Flipkart has won the overall festival season battle of this year, according to a report.

Indians are known to splurge big during Diwali and both giants are well prepared with exclusive offers and attractive deals to pull as many customers they can.

Amazon India, under its Great Indian Festival sales, is offering "big deals on big brands," whereas, the home-grown behemoth, Flipkart is also offering heavy discounts under its "Big Diwali Sale" from October 14 to October 17.

Flipkart and Amazon India accounted for about 80 per cent of this year’s overall festive season sales, according to analysts. The final phase of the mega sales events ends on Tuesday, reported ET.

Also Read: India e-festival: How Paytm Mall will take on Amazon-Flipkart supremacy

Flipkart’s share of festive season sales increased to 50 per cent from 45 per cent last year, capturing much of the market, as per industry estimates. Amazon’s market share during the festive sales period that has stretched about a month is estimated to have remained unchanged at 35 per cent, though the company said it saw a 50 per cent share in other metrics like order volume and active customers.

"We expect online retailers to have sold goods worth $2.8-2.9 billion this festive season (beginning with Flipkart and Amazon’s flagship sales in September), as compared to $2-2.1 billion last year," said Satish Meena, senior forecast analyst at Forrester Research.

According to TA Krishnan, chief executive of Ecom Express, e-commerce shipments during this year’s festive season sales hovered at about 4 million a day, up from 3 million during last year’s festive season.

"We are especially excited about growing e-commerce in India with more than 85 percent of new customers from small towns," said Manish Tiwary, Vice President of Category Management, Amazon said earlier.

Home-grown e-tailer Flipkart reported having outrun Amazon in festival sales held last month. Flipkart reported generating around Rs 5000 crore in its first festive season whereas Amazon did the sale of around Rs 2500-3000 crore. Though, Seatle-based e-tailer disputed the figure.

Last year, the Bengaluru-based e-tailer had claimed to clinch the first spot with the sale of 15.5 million units. Whereas Amazon was just short of rival Flipkart with 15 million orders.

Flipkart: Website