Flipkart Halts Grocery Deliveries Amid Footfall Surge During Festive Sales

Flipkart has suspended its grocery delivery operations after the homegrown ecommerce giant suffered an outage due to high user traffic on Tuesday (October 10).

The outage comes amid its annual ‘Big Billion Days’ sale which started on October 8.

“Please come back tomorrow. We are overwhelmed by your response,” reads a banner displayed on the Flipkart Grocery segment of the Flipkart website and the app.

The development was first reported by the ET.

“Flipkart Grocery has received strong demand during the early access and first two days of the Big Billion Days sale. To ensure we continue to provide our customers with the wide selection of products available on the platform, we will now take new orders starting at midnight (00:00 AM) on October 11,” a Flipkart spokesperson told Inc42.

The spokesperson added, “We stay committed to providing our customers with the most fulfilling, value-led shopping experiences. The tremendous response to The Big Billion Days is a testament to our customers’ trust in us, and we are immensely grateful for their continued support.”

During India’s most festive time of the year, leading ecommerce titans Flipkart and Amazon launched their annual holiday sales on October 8. The two companies, which account for more than 90% of India’s ecommerce market, have been hard at work to leverage the festive season.

Recently, while Flipkart launched a new subscription plan, VIP, to offer users perks like free shipping and discounts, Amazon also launched a cheaper version of its Prime membership to compete.

Both companies have also made aggressive seasonal hirings to cope with the sharp increase in demand that comes with the festive season. Flipkart and Amazon have said they created 1 Lakh seasonal jobs across multiple verticals for the festive season.

According to consulting firm Redseer, the gross merchandise value (GMV) is anticipated to surge 18-20%, amounting to INR 90,000 Cr, a leap from INR 76,000 Cr in the previous year.

The ecommerce industry anticipates a stronger festive season compared to last year, with over 20% sales growth, driven by the D2C segment’s expected 40% quarter-over-quarter (Q0Q) surge. However, average user spending is likely to remain flat.

According to Inc42 analysis, Tier II and III cities and towns are expected to be the biggest contributors to this year’s festive season sales.

Read the key trends which will dominate festive sales this year.