Flipkart Eyes ‘Buy Now-Pay-Later’ Scheme, Plans Big Changes For ‘Big Billion Day’

Revving up its engine, Flipkart is considering major changes to its third annual flagship sales event, including swaying it through October and extending loans for customers.

As per an ET report, Flipkart is discussing internally if it should hold its Big Billion Day event on multiple days in October to have a greater control over deliveries and customer service. This time the USP is the ‘buy now-pay-later’ scheme during the sale, for which the company is also in talks with all its lenders.

Putting on a big show, this time it is a serious business for Flipkart also because Paytm plans to spin-off its online retail business by then, which is expected to be Alibaba’s ecommerce launchpad in India following the government’s decision to allow 100% foreign direct investment in online marketplaces.

The government in March, as part of its guidelines in online marketplaces, ordered that “direct or indirect” influence of price on sale of goods and services will not be carried out. But ecommerce giants like Flipkart, Amazon and Myntra have continued running sales arguing that the discounts offered during such promotional events are offered by the sellers and not them.

In October 2014, Flipkart fetched almost $100 Mn in a single day. However, mismanagement of the large number of orders played a big damper on the company. Last year, the sale event brought $30 Bn in over three days.

This year, the company has already built up its online marketing budget to attract more people to its mobile application and its desktop website. This includes the loans initiative, for which Flipkart will assess the financial standing of customers through data obtained from its app.

Preparations for the flagship sales event this year is being led by Kalyan Krishnamurthy, who rejoined Flipkart as head of category management in June.

Following another management change, Flipkart’s legal head Rajinder Sharma has quit, just 10 months after joining India’s top ecommerce firm that is battling with US giant Amazon.

Sharma’s exit comes at a time when Flipkart has to tackle new regulations governing online marketplaces.

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