Amazon says Rs 750 crore worth of phones sold; Flipkart claims two-fold growth in sales on Day 1

Amazon and Flipkart have claimed record sales on the first day of the season's sales. Amazon said that on its festive sale, Great Indian Festival Sale, the company sold Rs 750 crore worth of premium smartphones within 36 hours. Not to be outdone, Walmart-owned Flipkart said that it has seen a two-fold increase in growth on first day of Big Billion Days sale. Neither of the companies, however, divulged the total business on the first day of the sale. The festive sales are going to wrap up on October 4.

According to reports, e-commerce companies could ring in close to $5 billion worth of sale this festive season. "With the single largest day of Prime sign-ups, and record number of customer and seller participation, this is the biggest opening day sale for Amazon.in," Amazon Global Senior Vice President and India Country Head Amit Agarwal said in a report in news agency PTI.

Agarwal mentioned that 91 per cent of its new customers come from Tier II and III towns. Fashion and smartphone categories are the top shopping segments for the new customers. The Hindi interface that was launched last year also brought in a large number of these new customers. He also added that over 42,500 sellers received at least one customer order in the first 36 hours.

"Affordability programmes enabled record number of customers upgrade to premium phones with sales from premium brands OnePlus, Samsung and Apple exceeding Rs 750 crore within 36 hours. Large appliances and TVs saw record sales over the 36 hours with nearly 10X from an average business day," Agarwal pointed out.

Fashion category has seen a five-fold growth, while beauty and groceries have seen a seven-fold and over three-fold growth during the first day of the company's Great Indian Festival sale. "Over 55,000 artisan products across more than 270 unique arts and crafts is available on the platform...over 2500 sellers recorded their highest ever sale on a single day," he added.

Similarly, Flipkart also saw higher sales in categories like fashion and beauty as well as private labels and furniture compared to last year's Big Billion Days sale. Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said that sales are only likely to pick up as mobiles and electronics sales open on Day 2.

Krishnamurthy said that this sale is going to be the biggest festive season that India has witnessed. "Affordability and value driven themes clearly are the pulsating chords for India and Bharat. Number of transacting customers from Tier II and beyond have doubled over last year's BBD sale on Day 1," he said.

Other players like Snapdeal, Club Factory and others are also running festive sale on their platforms.

Traders body CAIT, however, has alleged that e-commerce portals during the festive sales are causing huge loss of revenue to the government by levying GST on the discounted price rather than on the actual market price of the commodity.

Also read: Flipkart's Big Billion Days vs Amazon's Great Indian Festival: What are the best smartphone deals?

Also read: Flipkart, Amazon create 140,000 temporary jobs ahead of festive season sale