pumkinduke
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Leading e-commerce player Flipkart on Monday claimed
to have clocked sales worth $100 million in gross
merchandise value (GMV), in only 10 hours of its so-
called 'Big Billion Day' sale. That seems an eye-popping
number, given that the company had achieved sales of
$1 billion in annual GMV in 2013-14. Flipkart does not
reveal its daily sales figures, but going by the annual
GMV run rate, its average daily sales last financial year
should have been about $2.7 million.
Even as some users slammed the sale on social media
platforms as a marketing gimmick, the company said its
website had received a record one billion clicks through
the day.
Online buyers, up since early morning, were ready to
avail of the discounts offered by Flipkart - some went so
far as to call the experience "a wedding in the family"
and compare the event with international signature ones
like the US' Black Friday sale and Alibaba Single's
Day sale.
However, many were in for disappointment, as the best
deals on the website were over within seconds of the
sale starting at 8 am. And, within the first 15 minutes,
the 'steal deal' section, offering the biggest discounts,
flashed an 'out of stock' message. Customers also
complained that 'ratings and reviews' were missing from
many products on Monday, which made their purchasing
decisions more difficult. Also, Flipkart did not offer its
usual refund or cancellation options on purchases made.
Competition, too, played spoilsport for Flipkart's big sale
plans - a website directed buyers to Amazon, while rival Snapdeal spoke of matching offers
given by Flipkart. Amazon said it was not aware of how
the link was redirected to its site but added it was
investigating the matter.
FLIPKART’S ‘BLACK FRIDAY SALE’
1 billion: Hits received by the Flipkart website in 10
hours
500,000: Number of units sold in each of the mobile
and fashion categories, the best-selling segments
15 minutes: Time taken for the ‘best deals’ to be
wiped out
Raw deal: Buyers claim deals advertised in newspapers
were not available on website
Server errors: Stopped buyers from accessing the
website for hours; most items went ‘out of stock’ by the
time servers were restored
Grievances galore: Social networking sites were
flooded with complaints
Rivals: Snapdeal and Amazon were selling some items
at lower rates than Flipkart
Flipkart co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal,
however, said their company had "created history in
Indian e-commerce". The site got one billion hits on
Monday and "achieved its 24-hour sales target of $100
million in GMV in just 10 hours", they said in a
statement. The company's technology team was
addressing errors and providing constant support to
accommodate the largest traffic and customer visits that
India's e-commerce had ever witnessed, they added.
While the founders said "this inspires us to dream
bigger", consumers took to social media - Facebook,
WhatsApp and Twitter - to air grievances over 'Big Billion
Day'. Though some items again appeared in the 'steal
deal' section later in the day, several shoppers claimed
they faced difficulty in accessing the website due to
'server error'. Many others said the offers advertised by
Flipkart were just not there.
"In today's newspapers, Flipkart had advertised that
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 would be available for Rs 1,390
(against its original price of around Rs 13,900). But I
could not even search the product on the website, and
the prices for other tablet computers were nowhere close
to the discount advertised," said Pune-based
businessman Amol Nedhe.
Additionally, consumers claimed prices on the website
were inflated over the past few days and, therefore, the
discounts running on Monday were not genuine. It began
when a Sunday-night social media post - alleging Flipkart
had increased its prices - went viral. "So they have
increased the price now and tomorrow they will sell it in
deals for big billion day. Dear flipkart we are not
stupid," said an early post by Delhi-based Geetansh
Arora. The post had a photograph appended, showing
how the price of a microwave oven had been increased
by nearly Rs 5,000 just ahead of the 'Big Billion Day'
sale.
Sachin Bansal, however said the increase in prices was
due to a "manual error", as prices for some products had
been punched incorrectly, which was corrected on
Monday morning.
Buyers were shocked also because Snapdeal and
Amazon were selling many products at rates that were
lower than Flipkart's 'deep discounted' ones. Those who
still tried to make purchases on Flipkart were stuck for
hours with 'server errors' stopping them from accessing
products and leading to issues at the time of closing of
transactions. This happened in spite of technology
bandwidth expansion ahead of the sale.
A spokesperson for Flipkart said the servers had not
crashed but "there was an error which has been
corrected. Our team is prepared to check all stress
points. The event is very successful and well-managed
so far."
About the server glitches, Bansal said the issues
happened because the traffic on the website was much
higher than ever in the past - and more than anticipated.
"Throughout the day, traffic was 10 times more than
what we were expecting. I am sure we will iron out these
issues and do a 10-on-10 job next time."
Frustrated with these errors, several buyers posted
criticising messages on Twitter. One of such tweets read:
"Contrary to popular belief, BigBillionDay sale by Flipkart
is not to raise awareness about httperror codes."
"Flipkart to offer 10% discount on 404 (error for 'page not
found') page. They are now calling it 363 page," read
another. The server issues were resolved by noon but
most items on the website were 'out of stock' by then.
During advertising for the day, Flipkart had said it would
run 'deep discounts' across 70 categories. The company
had also said it would offer multiple items at Rs 1; offer
up to 30 per cent discounts on smartphones, 50 per cent
on fashion, perfumes and toys; and sell laptops starting
Rs 15,000. The company had doubled its ground staff to
10,000 for the event over the past few months, and
extended deliveries to 40 more cities.
to have clocked sales worth $100 million in gross
merchandise value (GMV), in only 10 hours of its so-
called 'Big Billion Day' sale. That seems an eye-popping
number, given that the company had achieved sales of
$1 billion in annual GMV in 2013-14. Flipkart does not
reveal its daily sales figures, but going by the annual
GMV run rate, its average daily sales last financial year
should have been about $2.7 million.
Even as some users slammed the sale on social media
platforms as a marketing gimmick, the company said its
website had received a record one billion clicks through
the day.
Online buyers, up since early morning, were ready to
avail of the discounts offered by Flipkart - some went so
far as to call the experience "a wedding in the family"
and compare the event with international signature ones
like the US' Black Friday sale and Alibaba Single's
Day sale.
However, many were in for disappointment, as the best
deals on the website were over within seconds of the
sale starting at 8 am. And, within the first 15 minutes,
the 'steal deal' section, offering the biggest discounts,
flashed an 'out of stock' message. Customers also
complained that 'ratings and reviews' were missing from
many products on Monday, which made their purchasing
decisions more difficult. Also, Flipkart did not offer its
usual refund or cancellation options on purchases made.
Competition, too, played spoilsport for Flipkart's big sale
plans - a website directed buyers to Amazon, while rival Snapdeal spoke of matching offers
given by Flipkart. Amazon said it was not aware of how
the link was redirected to its site but added it was
investigating the matter.
FLIPKART’S ‘BLACK FRIDAY SALE’
1 billion: Hits received by the Flipkart website in 10
hours
500,000: Number of units sold in each of the mobile
and fashion categories, the best-selling segments
15 minutes: Time taken for the ‘best deals’ to be
wiped out
Raw deal: Buyers claim deals advertised in newspapers
were not available on website
Server errors: Stopped buyers from accessing the
website for hours; most items went ‘out of stock’ by the
time servers were restored
Grievances galore: Social networking sites were
flooded with complaints
Rivals: Snapdeal and Amazon were selling some items
at lower rates than Flipkart
Flipkart co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal,
however, said their company had "created history in
Indian e-commerce". The site got one billion hits on
Monday and "achieved its 24-hour sales target of $100
million in GMV in just 10 hours", they said in a
statement. The company's technology team was
addressing errors and providing constant support to
accommodate the largest traffic and customer visits that
India's e-commerce had ever witnessed, they added.
While the founders said "this inspires us to dream
bigger", consumers took to social media - Facebook,
WhatsApp and Twitter - to air grievances over 'Big Billion
Day'. Though some items again appeared in the 'steal
deal' section later in the day, several shoppers claimed
they faced difficulty in accessing the website due to
'server error'. Many others said the offers advertised by
Flipkart were just not there.
"In today's newspapers, Flipkart had advertised that
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 would be available for Rs 1,390
(against its original price of around Rs 13,900). But I
could not even search the product on the website, and
the prices for other tablet computers were nowhere close
to the discount advertised," said Pune-based
businessman Amol Nedhe.
Additionally, consumers claimed prices on the website
were inflated over the past few days and, therefore, the
discounts running on Monday were not genuine. It began
when a Sunday-night social media post - alleging Flipkart
had increased its prices - went viral. "So they have
increased the price now and tomorrow they will sell it in
deals for big billion day. Dear flipkart we are not
stupid," said an early post by Delhi-based Geetansh
Arora. The post had a photograph appended, showing
how the price of a microwave oven had been increased
by nearly Rs 5,000 just ahead of the 'Big Billion Day'
sale.
Sachin Bansal, however said the increase in prices was
due to a "manual error", as prices for some products had
been punched incorrectly, which was corrected on
Monday morning.
Buyers were shocked also because Snapdeal and
Amazon were selling many products at rates that were
lower than Flipkart's 'deep discounted' ones. Those who
still tried to make purchases on Flipkart were stuck for
hours with 'server errors' stopping them from accessing
products and leading to issues at the time of closing of
transactions. This happened in spite of technology
bandwidth expansion ahead of the sale.
A spokesperson for Flipkart said the servers had not
crashed but "there was an error which has been
corrected. Our team is prepared to check all stress
points. The event is very successful and well-managed
so far."
About the server glitches, Bansal said the issues
happened because the traffic on the website was much
higher than ever in the past - and more than anticipated.
"Throughout the day, traffic was 10 times more than
what we were expecting. I am sure we will iron out these
issues and do a 10-on-10 job next time."
Frustrated with these errors, several buyers posted
criticising messages on Twitter. One of such tweets read:
"Contrary to popular belief, BigBillionDay sale by Flipkart
is not to raise awareness about httperror codes."
"Flipkart to offer 10% discount on 404 (error for 'page not
found') page. They are now calling it 363 page," read
another. The server issues were resolved by noon but
most items on the website were 'out of stock' by then.
During advertising for the day, Flipkart had said it would
run 'deep discounts' across 70 categories. The company
had also said it would offer multiple items at Rs 1; offer
up to 30 per cent discounts on smartphones, 50 per cent
on fashion, perfumes and toys; and sell laptops starting
Rs 15,000. The company had doubled its ground staff to
10,000 for the event over the past few months, and
extended deliveries to 40 more cities.
but in the evening they cancelled the order 
but gave Rs. 500 as refund 
