Flipkart has officially announced that their marquee annual shopping festival--the Big Billion Days Sale--is going to be be app-only this year. Unlike the last year where the sale lasted for just a single day, this time around it is scheduled to extend between 13 and 17 October 2015.
In what will be the biggest test of whether Indian consumers have really warmed up to the idea of shopping online via a mobile device only, the e-commerce store is clearly betting big on this happening. Yes, desktop users will not be eligible to take part in this event.
Flipkart has increasingly been alluding to making a complete transition to an app-only existence, just as they did with their online fashion store Myntra. “Bigger and better as compared to last year, we have worked towards ensuring a seamless shopping experience for our customers,” said Mukesh Bansal, Head of Commerce Platform, Flipkart and Chairman of Myntra.
With over 70 product categories included in this year’s sale with extra discounts on products like apparels, footwear, mobiles, furniture, laptops, toys, large appliances, jewelry, watches and home furnishings and more, it is bound to draw plenty of customers. From last years sale where many things went awry during the event (such as server errors that prevented online shoppers from completing sale transactions etc,) Flipkart certainly has its work cut out for itself this year.
With the previous sale run raking in $100 million within 10 hours, this time around it to be far more lucrative to the Flipkart, all things going according to schedule. With companies achieving as much as half their annual sales targets during this festive season alone, it’s going to be interesting to see how the shopping fever plays out among the rest of the online e-commerce players. Either way, it’s going to be bounty time for online shoppers.
