Recently, two major e-commerce giants again locked horns in their freedom sales on the objective of cashing in the Independence day.
But, again like the last year’s festive sales, Flipkart has lost the battle by recording a lower sales volume figure as compared to Amazon.
Now that another mega loot is coming really soon this Durga Puja, let’s dig down why Flipkart (in spite of a local demographic advantage, older domestic presence in market, lower turn around costs and valuable acquisitions like Myntra) got (repeatedly) beaten at the hands of its arch rival and what can we really expect in the next major sale which not too far anyway.
So, Amazon won because:
Amazon had a better word of mouth
Firstly, Amazon has made a reputation of delivering original products and in right time while Flipkart has repeated allegations of failed deliveries. And a segment of buyers is now taking this as an integrity issue. Also, owing to its international repo, it inherently generated a more reliable vibe among the customers.
Flipkart had gone totally app-centric while on Amazon, deals were both on the app and website.
This saved Amazon a traffic instability, lowered the maintenance costs and provided a better ease of access to the customers. While on the other hand, as Flipkart operated solely via the app, it reported multiple app-crashes due to the higher accumulation of the one-way traffic.
Prices were relatively lower on Amazon than Flipkart!
Now, this was the most prominent reason for the customer shift.
For example, where JBL pro was on sale for just Rs. 6,500 on Amazon, Flipkart was giving the same stuff for Rs. 8,500.
Flipkart had a fluctuating price bracket
Flipkart had insane price fluctuations during the whole sale. Like, what was Rs. 350 once, suddenly used to shoot as high as Rs. 900 at times. While the Amazon IN had a more balanced pricing.
Amazon was easier to shop
The overall user experience and deal detailings were more convenient and better on Amazon than Flipkart. The campaign design was also was more lucrative and attractive.
All in all, there were significant loopholes (especially) on the execution part of campaigns on Flipkart.
But Flipkart is still one of the most relaible online shopping destinations around. And, though the growth has slowed down due to a faster insurgency of competitors into the market, the website has still retained its position of being the biggest e-commerce website in India.
So, if Flipkart can take notes from these major shortcomings, we can expect a tough choice to go for, during this upcoming festive season, among the two mammoths of the Indian e-commerce market.
