E-tailers ready for festive showdown

Amazon, Flipkart expect a revival in discretionary spending

- Suneera Tandon

India’s leading online retailers are gearing up for a head-to-head clash with their annual festive season sales events starting in October and stretching until mid-November, coinciding with the cricket World Cup, which companies say will boost demand for discretionary products such as TVs and clothing after two subdued quarters.

On Friday, Amazon announced it will kick off its ‘Amazon Great Indian Festival’ (GIF) on 8 October, in sync with Flipkart’s The Big Billion Days sale, to deny any early advantage to chief rival. Amazon had earlier advertised a 10 October start date for the event. Reliance Retail’s Ajio is yet to announce its festive season sale dates.

Flipkart’s fashion platform Myntra expects about eight million customers to transact on its platform this festive season.

“August is the bellwether for the festive season in terms of how the season will shape up, and there have been good signs so far. Whether you look at festivals starting from Rakhi, Onam and Ganesh Chaturthi, all have been very good in terms of offtake; we have seen growth in festive-related categories," said Nandita Sinha, CEO of Myntra.