How eCommerce Giants are Gearing Up for Diwali

Finally, it’s that time of the year again! The festival of lights is knocking at our doors. For the first time in three years, businesses in India are all set to celebrate the festive season without the COVID-19 curbs.

Optimism is in the air. As more and more people talk about the best festive deals and offers online, this poses a bright opportunity for eCommerce giants to capitalize on Diwali, which is what they’re already doing and doing it well.

eCommerce sales are quite rightly expected to set new records this year. For starters, the first phase of this online festive sale season saw nearly 5.4X growth in daily sales on eCommerce platforms, with 3X growth in shipment volume.

What are these big eCommerce players really doing to prep up for the Diwali rush that these numbers are indicative of? A lot of smart things. Here are a few:

Strengthening the Basics

This festive season is undoubtedly a grand event for eCommerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart. Both of them are doing everything they can to make the most of it. From increasing their workforce to setting up new fulfillment centres to spending massively on advertising, both players are aggressively preparing to up their game this Diwali.

Expansion of Logistics Footprint

At a time when the ‘Great Indian Festival’ is going on, Amazon India has expanded the same-day delivery option for its Prime members, with deliveries likely to happen within four hours in more than 50 major cities and towns in India.

This is an intelligent move, considering it’s a 2.5X increase from the 14 cities and towns it was available in last year. As a result, now Amazon India not only delivers to 100% serviceable pin codes, but more than 97% of pin codes are now able to receive their deliveries within two days of placing an order.

But here’s a tip. While getting your orders fulfilled by Amazon will surely improve your customer experience, hiring the services of a 3PL fulfillment provider will give you a plethora of additional benefits, like reduced shipping costs and lesser chances of RTO(Return To Origin).

Delighting with Discounts

eCommerce marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart are promoting brands which give an additional 5–10% discount for festive season sales, compared to regular discounts. The centre of their focus is just — increasing their sales.

To gear up, Flipkart is relying on its strength. The whole campaign this year revolves firstly around its loyalty programme super-coins, secondly around fintech, where it is offering buy-now-pay-later options in a huge way, and lastly around live commerce.

In the runup to its ‘The Big Billion Days’ sale, Flipkart recorded more than 35 million app downloads. Not just this, the deep discount sale event brought four million first-time customers, putting Flipkart at the top in terms of order volume.

Meesho, on the other hand, is not that behind. Meesho beat Amazon to secure the second position during the first week of the ongoing festive season in terms of the number of orders placed.

This is probably because Meesho is not only giving discounts but giving discounts on the right products to the right audience. It had timely anticipated low-ticket size purchases and demand for unbranded fashion products from Tier-II towns.

Lighting the Bulb of Innovation

The times have changed. This is not just another Diwali. It’s the first post-pandemic Diwali without restrictions. To make the most of this opportunity, eCommerce giants on Diwali need to do something different to stand out in the market. Innovation is key, and Flipkart is already on the move.

It is reportedly planning to announce its interactive and Metaverse-themed virtual shopping platform, Flipverse. It is expected to be launched around Diwali, during the ongoing ‘The Big Billion Days Sale’. The idea is to deploy Web3.0 technologies and elevate the current 2D user experience to include virtual reality and other interactive features. Interesting, isn’t it?

If you’re planning to sell or are already selling on any of these platforms, don’t miss to check out some of the interesting deals they’re offering to sellers.

For example, earlier this month, Amazon announced that all new sellers registering on the platform between August 28 and October 26 and launching within 90 days from the date of registration would be eligible to get a 50% waiver on selling fees across categories.

Wishing you a fab festive season and a successful Diwali. Good luck!