Flipkart and Amazon have been in a race to conquer the Indian e-commerce market for the past three years. The festive season sale that was conducted last month gave us a hint about who is dominating the sector. Based on the sales figures, Binny Bansal, CEO of Flipkart has stated that India’s largest home-grown start-up can hold its own against a global retail and technology powerhouse.
This is quite interesting as Amazon was closing on the gap with Fipkart to be the leading online retail platform in India. It is also said to be the most expensive market share battles of recent times as the former had reportedly one upped Flipkart in monthly sale figure in July and August.
Shedding more light on the sales, Binny said that Flipkart has generated six times more sales this year than it did in October 2014, when the company launched its annual shopping festival, Big Billion Days (BBD).
While he declined to provide exact numbers, two people familiar with the matter said to LiveMint on condition of anonymity that Flipkart has generated gross sales of more than Rs. 5,000 crore in October. A third person said that Amazon India’s gross sales in October were Rs. 4,000-4,500 crore.
In conversation with LiveMint, Binny Bansal said,
One thing that is heartening in the wide lead established by Flipkart [in October] is that a home-grown company can successfully fend off a 22-year-old global behemoth pouring in money to buy market share.
This is very important as it’s a question on everyone’s mind today, especially on the minds of entrepreneurs: how will we take on global giants if they come into India? The answer is that you can. You need to do it with the right customer focus, local innovation and local knowledge. And that would always win against just pure capital.
While Amazon has superior edge due to its vast warchest which results in spending power, Flipkart’s performance in the month of October has put it again in the race. It has also been expanding its business in India very aggressively. During its almost one month long Diwali festival sale, the company said that it has witnessed around 2.7 times jump in its sales from last year.
When Flipkart claimed to outsell Amazon India during the first leg of the sale season, Amazon claims it dominated the second sale season. However, it is a long wait to see who actually takes over the e-commerce sector of the country in the long run.
