Amazon to host ‘Great Indian Festival’ from Oct 17 onwards

PTI, Oct 6, 2020, 2:37 PM IST

New Delhi: E-commerce giant Amazon on Tuesday said it will host its ‘Great Indian Festival’ from October 17 onwards.

Unlike previous years, Amazon.in did not provide an end-date for the sale event saying its a “month-long celebration” that will coincide with the festive season across Dussehra to Diwali, and see participation from over 6.5 lakh sellers.

Amazon rival, Flipkart is slated to host its annual ‘The Big Billion Days’ sale from October 16-21.

“This year’s Great Indian Festival is an opportunity for our sellers and partners to reach millions of customers across the country. Our sellers are excited and expect this to help them in accelerating their business. For our customers, our aim is to help them find everything they need during the festive season and deliver it safely to them,” Amazon India Vice President Manish Tiwary said in a virtual briefing.

He cited a recent survey it commissioned (conducted by Nielsen) and said sellers on its platform are optimistic about this festive season.

“As per the survey, more than 85 per cent of SMBs sellers on Amazon.in are expecting to reach out to new customers and see an increase in sales. More than 74 per cent sellers are optimistic about the recovery of business and 78 per cent is positive about the increase in visibility of products,” he added.

Tiwary said the sale is also important as it will provide lakhs of Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) an opportunity to offer unique selection to customers, helping them rebuild and accelerate their business in tough times.

Customers across the country can buy these products under various programmes such as Local Shops, Amazon Launchpad, Amazon Saheli, and Amazon Karigar, he added.

Over 900 new product launches from top brands such as Samsung, OnePlus, Apple, Boat, Dabur, Max Fashion, Lakme, Peter England and Biotique are also expected apart from new launches from Amazon Devices.

Tiwary said business buyers can also save big on Amazon Business with bulk discounts.

All transactions are supported by a GST invoice and businesses can buy from the SMB store to fulfil their gifting requirement for clients, customers and employees, he added.

Amazon India has partnered with HDFC Bank to offer finance options to customers.

E-commerce companies see a large chunk of their business coming in during the festive sales and they make significant investments ahead of time to ramp up their capacity to be able to handle the spike in orders.

The festive season sees players holding multiple sale events, timed around Dussehra and Diwali.

Electronics, fashion and home furnishing are some of the categories that see a huge demand during the festive season.

A report by RedSeer estimates that festive sales this year are expected to almost double and touch USD 7 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) as compared to USD 3.8 billion in the same period last year.

Tiwari said Amazon India has ramped up its delivery infrastructure adding close to 200 delivery stations. It has more than 60 fulfilment centres in 15 states, offering a storage capacity of over 32 million cubic feet.

Amazon India has previously said it has created more than one lakh seasonal job opportunities ahead of the festive season across its operations network in the country.