Sign up for afaqs! Newsletters
Indian e-comm sites push Black Friday sales in bid to create a new occasion for retail therapy?
A large number of e-commerce websites are offering massive discounts to celebrate this occasion. But a majority of people in India still lack the significance of this sale.
From electronics to lipsticks, Black Friday sales is picking up in the country like a new trend. As today marks the Black Friday Sale across the world, brands and e-commerce websites like Amazon, Nykaa, Myntra, are putting up huge discounts and offers.
Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year in the United States, takes place right after Thanksgiving. Black Friday sales officially kickstarts the festive season shopping spree.
Dr Kushal Sanghvi, India and SEA head, CitrusAd (a retail media platform for sponsored product and email ads, banners) says, "Globally Black Friday and Cyber Week are one of the largest opportunities for e-commerce businesses. But with a lot of Indians travelling overseas, people are becoming familiar with these concepts. Indians today are getting very western with this approach and celebrate Christmas as much as Diwali."
"It's definitely a very urban phenomenon in the country. It is something that a lot of people don't even know. This is a phenomenon which is elevated to a few top cities for now. Currently it is in metro cities like Bombay, Delhi and Bangalore." Adds Sanghvi.
All these e-commerce platforms organise big sales like Amazon’s Great Indian Festival Sale or Flipkart’s Big Billion Days Sale during the time of Diwali. But why are these platforms choosing this time of the year?
Criteo (CRTO), the commerce media company, has released the comparative insights observed two weeks before the Diwali holiday season of 2021 and 2022. The findings highlighted that online sales data for the two weeks before Diwali, which was October 10-23, showed an increase of 17% versus the same two-week period last year (October 21 - November 3).
Adding to this, Sanghvi says that platforms like Amazon and Flipkart do their biggest sales one month before diwali. "They make 40% of their overall yearly business in those promotion times. If they recreate something similar like a Black Friday week, then it is like creating a new category. Globally Black Friday sale is a very big time of the year, brands are trying to make it more regional. Marketers are trying to create another opportunity with Black Friday sales."
Here's a look at some of the Black Friday Sale offers: