The homegrown e-tailer, Flipkart, expects to see increased value-conscious buying compared to previous years during the six-day-long sale period, but has upped its game to drive engagement and the trust of new shoppers at a time when it is locked in a battle with rival Amazon and new entrant Reliance Industries’ Jio Mart.
Four top executives of the Walmart-owned company — including senior vice presidents Amitesh Jha, Jeyandran Venugopal, and Rajneesh Kumar – told ET in a joint interview that they expect small towns to dominate growth.
“In the last 6 months, due to Covid-19 lot of users for the first time actually started trying out eCommerce. We had to fundamentally innovate and rethink on how to make the platform even better to cater to the new needs of this next 200 million cohort,” said Venugopal, chief product and technology officer at Flipkart.
Since last year, Flipkart has launched in local languages including Tamil, Hindi, and Kannada, and invested in voice and natural language technology to drive adoption.
Sales could grow by as much as 50% to about $4 billion during the main sales days – which are dominated by Flipkart’s Big Billion Days and Amazon’s Great Indian Festival Sale, according to consultancy RedSeer’s estimates.
This period is expected to add 50 million new shoppers, according to the consulting firm’s forecast.