Each year, Flipkart holds its BBD sales event. Similar to Prime Day and Singles’ Day, BBD is an online event focused on price promotions with participation by major brands and thousands of sellers. Flipkart is India’s biggest e-commerce marketplace and is majority-owned by Walmart.

Amazon India holds its GIF event with deals on numerous brands and popular products.

This year, BBD and GIF both run September 29 (or the prior day for members of their loyalty/membership programs) to October 4.

Flipkart Kicks Off BBD

Flipkart kicked off BBD with steep discounts on various product categories including mobile phones, TVs, appliances, clothing, home and furniture, consumer electronics, beauty and grooming. Flipkart has invested considerable effort months in advance to prepare and promote the sale.

These are some of the highlights from day 1:

• Flipkart reported “2X sales growth” on day 1 of BBD 2019 than BBD opening day 2018.
• All major categories including women’s ethnic wear, beauty, kids wear, sports, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs), baby care, private labels and furniture surpassed day 1 BBD 2018 total sales.
• Flipkart reported “3X transaction growth” during the early access period offered to Plus customers than it did during the same pre-sale early access period in 2018.
• The number of customers from tier 2 cities and beyond doubled over day 1 of BBD 2018.
• Customers who took advantage of credit or payment plans spent 2.5 times more than other customers.
• Travel was the fastest growing category, ahead of other vertical players, “12X growth” versus last year.
• Flipkart registered close to 10 million new app downloads in less than a month in the run-up to BBD 2019.
• Some 1.5 million users engaged with the Flipkart Ideas platform in just 24 hours.

Introduced in August 2019, Flipkart Ideas helps consumers find new products and brands through curated content. Flipkart Ideas engages consumers through images, stories, polls, quizzes and videos, and enables users to narrow results for specific products.

Headline Deals

Flipkart is offering a 10% additional discount to ICICI Bank credit card users and Axis Bank credit and debit card users. Other offers include no-cost EMI, free installation services, INR 50 ($0.70) off for first-time buyers on Flipkart Pay Later, an easy replacement policy and credit up to INR 100,000 ($1,408) during the sale.

Apart from regular discounts on products, Flipkart is offering limited-period deals on select categories. These are divided into three basic types:

Crazy Deals

[caption id="attachment_97426" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Source: Flipkart.com[/caption]

Crazy Deals are available on select product categories and refresh every eight hours during the BBD event. These products feature heavy discounts and tend to run out quickly. Some Crazy Deals include:

• Fashion items: 40%-80% off.
• Home and furniture: 50%-90% off.
• Books, toys and sports accessories: starting at INR 49 ($0.69).
• Electronics and accessories: up to 90% off.
• Mobile phones: major discounts.
• TVs and appliances: up to 75% off.
• Ethnic clothing and jewelry: 60% off or more.

[caption id="attachment_97427" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Source: Flipkart.com[/caption]

MAHA Price Drop

[caption id="attachment_97428" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Source: Flipkart.com[/caption]

Flipkart is offering deals in a promotion it calls the MAHA Price Drop (“maha” means “huge” in Hindi) with an additional discount of an additional 20% off products in select categories. These deals also refresh every eight hours.

[caption id="attachment_97429" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Source: Flipkart.com[/caption]  

Shop More to Save More

Shop More to Save More deals offer discounts of up to 15% for higher volumes. For example, customers can avail a 10% discount on buying three travel bags and a discount of 15% on buying four.

[caption id="attachment_97430" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Source: Flipkart.com[/caption]  

Day 1 of BBD saw sales in categories such as beauty and apparel, TVs and heavy appliances (washing machines, refrigerators and air conditioners), furniture, books, jewelry and smart devices. Promotions on key categories such as mobile phones, consumer electronics and accessories started on Day 2.

[caption id="attachment_97431" align="aligncenter" width="710"] Source: Flipkart.com[/caption]  

Amazon Great Indian Festival 2019

[caption id="attachment_97432" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Source: Amazon.in[/caption]  

Aiming to take on Flipkart’s BBD in India’s fast-growing online retail business, Amazon launched its flagship GIF sale to happen at the same time as BBD, running from midnight September 29 to October 4. Prime members could shop for deals 12 hours before non-Prime members.

Amazon partnered with the State Bank of India (SBI) to offer an additional 10% discount for credit and debit card users to reduce the risk associated with cash on delivery payment method. Amazon will also provide no-cost EMI and offer exchanges to make deals more attractive. Amazon also offers INR 15 ($0.21) cash back for orders sent to a pickup point. The rebate will be credited in the Amazon Pay wallet after the order is shipped.

[caption id="attachment_97433" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Source: Amazon.in[/caption]  

Amazon reported the following for the first 36 hours of its GIF event:

• Some 66% of Prime members shopping on Day 1 came from tier two and tier three cities, while 91% of new sign-ups for GIF also came from tier two and tier three cities.
• Affordable financing plans let customers upgrade to premium smartphones, with sales of OnePlus, Samsung and Apple devices exceeding INR 7.5 billion ($105 million).
• Fashion category sales increased fivefold compared to an average business day, while beauty segment sales jumped sevenfold.
• Over 42,500 sellers received at least one order (23% higher compared to 2018) in the first 36 hours of the GIF sale.
• Some 75% of customers used the no-cost EMI offering, with twice as many people using EMI as last year, 75% of whom came from tier two, three and beyond geographies.
• Over 2,500 sellers recorded their highest ever sales in a single day.
• Echo Dot was among the highest selling products on Amazon, selling four times as many devices in 2019 than in the same period in 2018.

Flipkart BBD vs Amazon GIF

Both Flipkart and Amazon offer big discounts across categories including consumer electronics, mobiles, fashions, accessories, appliances, furniture and kitchen products during their sales events, her are the key differences.

[caption id="attachment_97434" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Source: Flipkart.com, Amazon.in[/caption]  

Smartphones

Based on our observations, Flipkart has a clear edge on Amazon in smartphones. Flipkart offered deals on devices from Xiaomi, Realme, Apple, Asus, Nokia, Motorola, Honor, Oppo, Samsung and Vivo. Amazon has just a small number of smartphone deals from Samsung, OnePlus, Honor, Xiaomi and Nokia. Among new launches, Amazon has the OnePlus 7T series, Vivo U10 and Galaxy M30 series. Flipkart has top exclusive deals from Redmi, Realme, Vivo and more.

Laptops

Flipkart and Amazon India look to be on an equal footing with a range of deals in laptops, from budget to high-end multimedia laptops.

Televisions

Flipkart has a good number of deals on smart TVs, including the newly launched Mi TVs. Both platforms included a wide range of smart TVs, starting from as low as INR 7,999 ($112). Amazon offered the newly launched OnePlus smart TV.

Key Insights

• This year’s annual shopping festival comes amid a challenging backdrop for e-commerce in India. In the first half of 2019, the government implemented several new regulations that the e-commerce industry found restrictive. India is also experiencing an economic slowdown, which dampened growth of online commerce in the first half of 2019. However, these factors will not dampen consumer confidence in the long term and are likely to have a limited impact on festive season sales as online marketplaces roll out deals coupled with aggressive discounts and affordable financing.
• This year’s festive season sale is seeing strong demand from tier two and tier three cities for products such as smartphones and consumer electronics. Flipkart and Amazon have invested in capacity to fill orders, such as opening new fulfilment centers, to expand into new regions and strengthen last-mile delivery capabilities.
• Consumer electronics will overtake mobile phones to be the top selling category in the 2019 festive edition sales. Other categories such as fashion and furniture are also expected to gain higher shares.