Snapdeal sees 10-fold jump in sales this festive season

Almost 100% of products ordered were shipped within designated time-frame; 85% were shipped the same day

Online marketplace Snapdeal witnessed a ten fold increase in sales of goods in two days over previous sales as more consumers across India buy goods such as smartphones and television sets.

Snapdeal and its rivals Flipkart and Amazon are holding a festival sale this week offering massive discounts to lure buyers across India to buy on their mobile apps and websites.

On Monday, when Snapdeal ran sales on electronics, about five smartphones got sold every second on the e-commerce website, said Anand Chandrasekaran, chief product officer at Snapdeal. The number was around three mobile handsets per second till last week for Snapdeal.

About 40 per cent of the retail sales happen in India during the festive season that begins with Diwali and continues till Christmas. This period sets new base levels in sales for the next year. "Every year Diwali traffic goes up by a few hundred thousands. What's surprising is that the traffic does not go back to the previous rates in the week after Diwali. And the new figure becomes the base for the next year," Chandrasekaran said.

He added almost 100 per cent of the products ordered were shipped within in the designated time-frame and about 85 per cent of these were shipped on the same day.

Flipkart had claimed it sold a million units in the first 10 hours of its five-day 'Big Billion Days' sale that began early on Tuesday.

Amazon on Tuesday had said its sales were two times bigger than the previous bigger day -- The Great Indian Freedom Sale -- and four times bigger than the peak of last Diwali.

Snapdeal on Tuesday said that the sale has exceeded its expectation with an overwhelming response from customers across the country, with the sales revenue recording an increase of 17-fold by Monday evening, thanks to the electronic sales.

Snapdeal over the last six months has been strengthening its supply chain. Also it has made sure that its technology platform is geared to handle traffic surges without any delays or glitches.

To ensure that its customers get the best deals it is also offering cashback offers from its merchant partners.

Till the walk up to Diwali the company has planned to have a segment specific sale every Monday which would finally culminate in its big bang sale next month.