Bengaluru: Flipkart Ltd, India’s largest e-commerce firm, on Monday announced a bigger version of last year’s Big Billion Day sale, open for five days this time and limited to its smartphone app.

Flipkart said it will offer discounts and offers on more than 70 product categories including electronics, apparel, toys and furniture in the sale, to be held from 13-17 October.

“With over 75% of traffic coming via mobile, we expect this app-only sale to be the biggest shopping event of the year," said Mukesh Bansal, head of Flipkart’s commerce platform. “Bigger and better as compared to last year, we have worked towards ensuring a seamless shopping experience for our customers. We have also ramped up our technology and supply chain support to ensure all our 50 million customers have the best ever mobile shopping experience. In fact, to cater to the massive customer demand; we have opened new fulfilment centres across the country to guarantee efficient delivery."

Last October, Flipkart spent tens of crores of rupees on marketing its one-day Big Billion Day sale in October, touting deep discounts on all kinds of products. The company took just 10 hours to hit its target of $100 million in gross merchandise value, or the value of goods sold on the site, on the day of the sale.

However, the sale was marred by glitches, forcing Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal to apologize to customers for pushing up prices of some products, cancelling orders, inadequate product stock and other snafus.

Sales growth at all of India’s top online retailers, including Flipkart, slowed in the first quarter of the financial year, increasing pressure on the venture capital-backed companies to increase discounts and generate bumper sales during the key Diwali period, Mint reported on 23 July.

E-commerce firms generate more than half their annual sales in the October-December quarter, when Indians splurge on all kinds of products during Diwali and other festivals.

Flipkart’s decision to do an app-only sale will provide a litmus test of the company’s thesis that Indians are ready to shop exclusively on apps and abandon websites. Flipkart’s unit Myntra went app-only on 15 May. At the time it went app-only, the online fashion retailer justified its move saying it was then generating more than 90% of its traffic and 70% of its orders from its mobile app.

However, some shoppers on social media as well as several analysts and investors have heavily criticized the move, expressing puzzlement as to why a retailer would limit access to a single medium. Though the company doesn’t disclose sales numbers, moving to an app-only format has hit Myntra’s sales, people familiar with the matter have said.

According to some media reports, Flipkart, which earlier planned to follow Myntra in becoming an app-only platform, delayed that decision indefinitely after the customer backlash against Myntra.

While Flipkart-Myntra are betting they can persuade or force shoppers to abandon shopping on websites, rivals such as Amazon India (owned by Amazon Sellers Services Pvt. Ltd) and Snapdeal (Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd) haven’t been nearly as aggressive in pushing people toward apps.

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