Flipkart Makes 300 Sellers Millionaires In Four-Day Sale

As Walmart gets busy to meet legal requirements after its acquisition of Flipkart’s 77% stake, the Indian ecommerce giant continues to show Walmart why it is the right bet for Walmart’s ambitions in India. The four-day sale also enabled 300 sellers to become millionaires!

In the recently concluded four-day Big Shopping Days sale from May 13-16, Flipkart recorded sales equal to 24 non-sale days in terms of value, and sold as many units as 12 non-sale days.

In a media statement, the company has shared that the gross earnings of Flipkart through this four-day sale is “more than the total worldwide earnings of India’s highest grossing movie ever.”

Further, the company highlighted that over 93% of the customers shopped using Flipkart Mobile Platforms and over 54% of the customers who shopped came from Tier II and Tier III cities.

Some of the other major statistics of the sale are:

• Offering a first of its kind payment option to its customers, transactions using EMI on Debit Card spiked to 15 times the transactions on a non-sale day.
• Over 300 sellers became millionaires during the four day sale period.
• The top-selling categories during this sale were Mobiles, TVs, ACs, Laptops, Clothing and Footwear.
• In the mobiles category, Flipkart made 1.5X of sales that the entire country does across offline and online in the first 24 hours of the sale. Some of the top selling mobile brands were Mi, Samsung, Motorola, Oppo, Apple, Asus, Panasonic and Infinix.
• Flipkart Fashion witnessed three times jump while branded fashion witnessed a ten times increase in sales during Big Shopping Days as compared to non-sale days.
• Flipkart sold 15x times the number of TVs sold on non-sale days.
• Flipkart becomes the largest destination for watches in India by volume and value led to the category spiking by over 7X during the sale.

Last year during festive sales in September 2017, it was Flipkart that nailed the top spot again. A RedSeer Consulting report had revealed that the ecommerce sector saw the highest ever sale performance over the five festive days.

Walmart’s entry into the Indian ecommerce market has caused much unease for Amazon. The American ecommerce company had also tried to break-off the deal by offering a break-up fee as well as giving a rival offer. Soon enough, following Jeff Bezos’ $5 Bn commitment in India, Amazon poured in another $385.7 Mn (INR 2,600 Cr) in Amazon Seller Services ahead of the Flipkart-Walmart deal.

However, the sales have been a major cause of worry for Flipkart too. It was only recently that the homegrown major won a huge battle with the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) rejecting the revenue department’s argument that discounts rolled out by the company should be reclassified as capital expenditure.

According to IT officials, Flipkart generated a profit of $63.52 Mn (INR 408 Cr) for FY15-16, while the company originally reported a loss of $124 Mn (INR 796 Cr) for the said financial year.

It had been asked by the ITAT in Bengaluru to deposit $8.5 Mn (INR 55 Cr) as tax and $8.5 Mn (INR 55 Cr) as a bank guarantee by February 28, 2018.

While the win definitely boosted its morale for discounts on the platform, the impact of Walmart showing its trust on Flipkart is also set to impact the company and its plans to prove its worth. With India’s ecommerce industry expected to touch $200 Bn by 2026, as per a report by Morgan Stanley, the sales by Flipkart, Amazon, etc. have been the leading reasons for India relying on online shopping.

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