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Mumbai: Amazon.com Inc. is extending its Diwali sales event to a full month this year, hoping to overtake Walmart Inc.’s Flipkart in the race to unlock latent demand as Indian shoppers emerge from lockdowns. prolonged pandemics.
Both Amazon and Seattle-based Flipkart are doing their best for the nation’s biggest shopping season, which begins in mid-October. But unlike Flipkart, which sticks to a six-day event, Amazon plans to keep the discounts well. until celebrating Diwali in mid-November, having seen a 60% increase in new merchants on their platform.
“This is a long holiday season and our celebration has been designed to last its entire duration,” said Manish Tiwary, vice president of Amazon India’s consumer business, at a virtual media event on Tuesday.
As the American rivalry intensifies in the world’s largest untapped e-commerce market, the two giants will face off for the first time with a new local competitor, JioMart from Reliance Industries Ltd. The largest conglomerate’s online shopping platform. India’s largest has already started announcing discounts and deals on everything from groceries and fashion to home decor.
The US retail goliaths have been at war in the second most populous country, half a world away, since Walmart acquired control of local online retailer Flipkart Online Services for $ 16 billion two years ago. Amazon itself has invested $ 6.5 billion in its operations in India. This year, both have invested more than a billion dollars to develop their capacities and declared that they are making “long-term” bets in the country. Meanwhile, Reliance has raised about $ 24 billion from big-name US investors like Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google for its digital services and retail units.
To meet the increased demand, Amazon said it has created 100,000 seasonal jobs and plans to open 10 new fulfillment centers to store products from its 650,000 sellers. Flipkart announced that it would add 70,000 seats.
Adding a new item this year, both have also recruited thousands of local stores to serve customers. Amazon said more than 20,000 small stores have signed up for its Local Stores program for five months to sell essentials like household items and fresh flowers. Flipkart said it has signed up more than 50,000 retailers to deliver in more than 850 Indian cities. It has also introduced a wholesale digital marketplace that connects manufacturers with sellers. –Bloomberg
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