The Big Billion Day – Flipkart’s much-hyped and much-awaited-by-all sale that happened on October 6th is being scrutinized and ripped apart by everyone, consumers and sellers alike. Meant to benefit both consumers and sellers, Browntape‘s team dug into who actually benefitted with the few hours of sale on October 6th?
The Big Billion Day – For whom?
According to Flipkart’s email to sellers, Flipkart had added 10,000 odd people to its existing army of logistics personnel ready to process and dispatch orders the same day. Thrown open to more than 8 million customers, sellers were also requested to be on their toes to ensure orders were processed and delivered in time.
Agreed the orders from 8 million odd customers would probably be split between the multiple sellers on the Flipkart platform. But did everyone get a fair chance? Or did only WS Retail reap the most benefits? Let’s see.
How did pricing work on Flipkart on October 6th?
(Source: Quora)
Actual Price: X
BigBillionDay’s Price: 1.5X to 3X(Assume 1.5X)
Discount:60%
Today’s Price After Discount:0.9 X=X
Now Famous Author/Entrepreneur VarunAgarwal blogs(Book Name:How I braved Anu Aunty and Co Founded a Million Dollar Company) the same:
A post on Missionsharingknowledge.com spells out comparisons of the prices offered on Flipkart and other marketplaces on the same day indicating a big disparity in prices. A saree from the brand Soch was priced at INR 6,898 on Flipkart, while the same saree cost only INR 2,803 on the Soch website.
Orders on other marketplaces on the Big Billion Day
Based on orders received by Browntape’s sellers on October 6th (indicated by the chart above), looks like the inflated prices and stock-out positions of most products on Flipkart actually benefitted other marketplaces.
On Flipkart, it seems that most of the Big Billion marketing was enjoyed by WS Retail, the seller name under which Flipkart sells its products. Where as the sellers did not see much benefits of the sale.
Curiously, the sales on Flipkart prior to the Big Billion Day were not as much as the usual sales volumes for the sellers on Flipkart. They were down as compared to other marketplaces as well.This was possibly due to the ‘big wait’ for the offers on October 6th.
The number of orders on other marketplaces almost doubled on October 6th, compared to the previous week, except Flipkart; another indication that what was meant to be Flipkart’s Big Billion Day actually drove customers to other portals looking for better deals and options.
Alarmingly, eBay was the only marketplace where the increased number of orders led to an increase in the Rupee value sales. For all others, since they offered deep discounts, the Rupee value of orders actually fell even after the increase in the number of orders. Looks like eBay is the only marketplace actually trying to focus on profitability.
Are you wondering who gained?
By the looks of it, Flipkart’s WS Retail seems to have gained as opposed to the sellers on its portal. By 2 pm, orders stopped being processed, apparently the order-processing limit (of 3,00,000 orders) had been reached and further orders had to be stopped to avoid late deliveries.
A lot of sellers received the following message:
We are left wondering if Flipkart really needed this sort of a publicity gimmick, which could potentially tarnish its image built over the past seven years for ensuring maximum customer satisfaction. For now, Flipkart seems to have driven customers towards its competitors, definitely not what they intended we are guessing!
