After Amazon, it’s Flipkart’s turn to get a share of its competitor’s fanbase.
Amazon kicked off its Diwali Dhamaka sale, while Flipkart called its pre-Diwali sale the Big Billion Day sale. Amazon tried to put a damper on Flipkart’s big day by allegedly buying the domain bigbillionday.com. So, whenever Flipkart fans would click on the link, they would be directed to Amazon India’s website.
Now, Flipkart has given Amazon a taste of its own medicine. Flipkart has bought the domain name Diwalidhamaka.co.in, which directs users to Flipkart. This only shows that the e-commerce war between Flipkart and Amazon has further intensified in the festive season as each one tries to grab a larger portion of the market share.
Earlier this week, Flipkart’s Big Billion Day Sale did not turn out to be a huge hit and the company received flak for just about everything – be it marked up prices and out of stock woes or selling some products really cheap and angering big brands. It even compelled founders and ex-Amazon employees Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal to subsequently push out an apology email to its every customer.
The obsessive pre-Diwali discount bonanza was clearly visible given that both Flipkart and Snapdeal had front page ads in the Times of India. In spite of the accusations, Flipkart claims it “got a billion hits” and $100 million of GMV (gross merchandise value) sales in just 10 hours. Snapdeal too was claiming something similar, with sales worth Rs 1 crore a minute, so roughly close to Flipkart.
