Over 1 in 4 Indians likely to visit Flipkart during festive sale event BBD

More than one out of four Indians are expected to visit Flipkart during the e-commerce firm’s flagship festival sales event The Big Billion Days' (BBD) 2024 that starts from September 27, according to top company executives.

They said that Flipkart is making significant investments and scaling up its network.

This comes as it prepares to serve millions of customers during the festive season. To meet festival demand, Flipkart has launched 11 new fulfilment centres and created over 100,000 jobs across over 40 regions.

This year, the company has increased the hiring of women in the blue collar workforce by 24 per cent compared to BBD 2023.

“Our enhanced supply chain tech, including machine learning (ML) for route planning and faster sorting, ensures quicker deliveries across 19,000 pin codes,” said Harsh Chaudhary, head of growth (vice-president), Flipkart.

He added, “We are also expanding same-day and next-day delivery services.”

Through the simplified rate card, updated shipping costs and economical fulfillment by flipkart (FBF) rates, Flipkart said sellers will be able to deliver superior value to customers during this BBD.

This rate card redesign is part of Flipkart's broader initiative to streamline operations and offer robust support to its vast network of sellers across India.

The firm said the growth in seller business is being observed across India since the introduction of these policies.

Engagement for Flipkart’s Brand Mall mode, which offers access to premium brands to customers, is expected to be 2X during BBD 2024, compared to last quarter.

Video commerce

Flipkart is also betting big on video commerce for this year’s BBD. The firm recently kickstarted a ‘Live Commerce’ stream, which garnered 1.4 million views in a span of 2 hours. This is the highest recorded engagement till date for a live stream on Flipkart. Products such as watches, Bandhini sarees, T-shirts, and kitchen sets that were featured in the stream saw a 20X spike in searches during the stream, compared to pre-stream period.

The firm also observed a 40 per cent increase in ‘queries per second’ during live stream hours year-over-year.

Around 55 per cent of these customers are from Tier-III regions and 85 per cent of live stream customers are under the age of 35 years.

“This BBD, we are making the Flipkart shopping experience more intuitive, inclusive and immersive by integrating advanced technologies to meet the evolving demands of customers,” said Ravi Krishnan, head of category experiences product at Flipkart. “We continue to have a razor-sharp focus on growing our video commerce and immersive shopping experiences, given the early success we have witnessed. We believe that experiential shopping plays an important role in helping users visualise products to facilitate informed decision making,” said Krishnan.

To this extent, Krishnan said this year, the firm has brought in a host of new and innovative features. This is powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to improve shopping experience.

For instance, Flipkart has come up with Generative AI enabled 3D product explainer videos. These include various features, including voiceovers for enhanced product understanding.

There is also a feature that allows users to try-on watches virtually on their wrists to boost their purchase confidence. This feature is live on 150 smartwatch products on Flipkart. The features such as ‘Beauty Looks and Virtual Try On’ provide a personalised experience to the customers.

The firm’s ‘Stylemate’ feature uses multimodal AI to help users find visually-similar products. For example it addresses requests like “I want this Kurti, but with a different pattern.”

Flipkart said now 50 per cent of its catalogue is video-enabled. This is for the top video-first categories such as T-shirts, women’s dresses, backpacks, facewash, and moisturisers.

There are also nearly 100,000 styles under ‘Flip In Trends. This is a programme by Flipkart that aims to offer trendy products to consumers. It is based on generative AI, merchandising, and technological enhancements, and is available on the Flipkart app.

Leading e-commerce firms Flipkart and Amazon will start their annual flagship sale events from September 27, with 24-hour early access for their Prime, VIP and Flipkart Plus members.

E-commerce firm Meesho said it would also start its ‘Mega Blockbuster Sale’ on September 27. 

E-commerce companies and online sellers are expected to ship merchandise worth $12 billion to consumers in India this festival season, up 23 per cent compared with about $9.7 billion last year, according to data from market research firm Datum Intelligence.

Flipkart witnessed a record 1.4 billion customers visiting its platform during its flagship festival sales event, BBD 2023.

Last year, Amazon India saw 1.1 billion customers visit the platform during the event and almost 4 million of them were new.