More than 78% of the surveyed Amazon sellers expect to reach out to new customers, 71% mentioned an increase in their sales and 71% mentioned a recovery in their business as their top expectations from the festive season.
E-commerce firm Amazon will start its flagship sale The Great Indian Festival from October 4, Manish Tiwary, vice president Amazon India said on September 24 adding that categories like electronics, fashion and grocery will drive the sale.
Lakhs of sellers including 75,000 local shops from 450 cities will offer their selection on Amazon during the sale
As per a recent study commissioned by Amazon India and conducted by Nielsen, 98% of the sellers surveyed said that technology adoption and e-commerce have positively impacted their business.
More than 78% of the surveyed Amazon sellers expect to reach out to new customers, 71% mentioned an increase in their sales and 71% mentioned a recovery in their business as their top expectations from the festive season.
The Great Indian Festival would include over 1,000 new product launches from top brands such as Samsung, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Sony, Apple, Boat, Lenovo and HP among others.
“This year’s Great Indian Festival is a celebration of the resilience of local shops and small and medium sellers. We are humbled by their spirit and delighted with the opportunity to partner and enable their growth, especially in view of recent challenges owing to the pandemic,” said Tiwary.
Ahead of the sale, Amazon India has also created over 110,000 seasonal job opportunities across its operations network. The company has expanded its fulfilment network by increasing its storage capacity by 40% with more than 60 fulfilment centers in 15 states offering 43 million cubic feet to its sellers.
Rival Flipkart has also announced the dates of its flagship sale, Big Billion Days from October 7 to October 12. While Amazon has announced the starting date, it didn’t comment on when it plans to close it.
According to consulting firm Redseer, the expected week-long online festive sales this year are likely to clock a gross merchandise value (GMV) of $4.8 billion in 2021 reporting a growth of 30 percent as compared to 2020.
Further, these sales are expected to clock over $9 billion GMV during the entire month of festivities. This is a 23 percent increase from 2020, wherein the players clocked a GMV of $7.4 billion. This years sale also happens at a crucial time when the two e-commerce companies are facing investigation from multiple agencies including the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against for alleged anti-competitive practices, predatory pricing and preferential treatment of sellers among others.Currently Amazon is also reported to have set up an internal investigation following a whistleblower complaint alleging that money paid for legal fees was funneled into bribes by Amazon’s legal representatives.
