Snapdeal, Shopclues not competing with Amazon, Flipkart this festive season?

To avoid the wave of intense competition from ecommerce leaders, Amazon and Flipkart, smaller etailers, Snapdeal and Shopclues plan on hosting their festive sales much earlier. The large online marketplaces are yet to announce the dates for their Diwali sales but the smaller ones are going out on a limb by guessing the perfect dates for their own sales.

Sale announcements

Shopclues Diwali sale

From 21 September to 28 September 2017, Shopclues will be hosting its ‘Maha Bharat Diwali Sale’. In October, customers will then have the ‘Diwali Flea Market’ to look forward to. This will be held from 7 October to 10 October 2017.

According to the ecommerce company, it will have over 10,000 festive utility and gifting products with a starting price of just Rs.29.

Snapdeal Diwali sale

This year Snapdeal started with a pre-Diwali sale, of three days, at the start of September. Every purchase made during this sale received gift vouchers from Yatra and BookMyShow.

The etailer also mentioned that it has multiple special promotions lined up for the festive season. It has already started spending on festive season promotions to stay relevant.

• A wide range of products across categories like electronics, accessories, fashion and lifestyle and home and kitchen are expected to go on sale at discounts ranging from 50% to 80%, on both ecommerce platforms.

Will early sales save Snapdeal & Shopclues from a brutal beating?

There are certain benefits that these etailers are looking to avail of by being the first to go on sale. They include:

• Cheaper media ad spots, due to smaller marketing budgets
• Ensuring maximum online sellers offer attractive discounts on their platforms

This Diwali Amazon and Flipkart will be slashing profits and commissions to accommodate Diwali discounts. This will draw more sellers to their marketplace during the festive sale season, leaving the small online retailers with less attractive discounts. Also, big etailers have received extensive financial backing to support their spends:

Flipkart

• Obtained $1.4 billion from its merger with eBay and investment from Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Microsoft Corporation (in 2017).
• Received another generous investment of $2.5 billion from Snapdeal’s largest investor SoftBank (in 2017).

Amazon

• Has already committed $5 billion towards Amazon India.
• Injected $63 million into its logistics arm for better customer experience during the festive season.

Paytm

• Set aside 1000 core as festive season spends.

The Diwali discounts are expected to be even more extravagant this year since big etailers are loaded with billions. And, the best thing smaller players can do is make the most of the pre-Diwali period to ensure they receive some phenomenal spikes in sales.