In one of the biggest sales days in Indian online retail market, Flipkart and snapdeal today sold products worth an estimated Rs 600 crore each even as customers complained about technical glitches, while global e-retailer Amazon continued its own pre-Diwali campaign.
Flipkart claimed it sold products worth USD 100 million (over Rs 600 crore) within 10 hours, while snapdeal pegged its sales at Rs 1 crore a minute-- which translates into a figure similar to Filpkart's. There was no sales figures from Amazon which is running a three-day discount campaign.
"We got a billion hits on our site today and achieved our 24 hour sales target of USD 100 million in GMV (gross merchandise value) in just 10 hours," Flipkart co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal said in a joint statement.
Sale on Flipkart started at 8 am and most of the products under scheme were sold by afternoon.
"The Big Billion Day is an unprecedented day for us as this is the biggest sale ever in India. With a range of exciting offers on quality products at disruptive prices available throughout the sale period, we have created history in Indian e-commerce," the joint statement said.
"Snapdeal had a record breaking day of sales on October 6, 2014. We witnessed sales of over a crore rupees a minute, with lakhs of products being sold in a single day," its Co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl said.
Customers, however, complained of technical glitches and slow response on Flipkart website. They took to social media websites to express their dismay over the performance of the Flipkar website during the sale scheme.
Some customers complained that they did not receive their order details despite paying for the product they bought.
"Our technology team has been dedicated towards addressing errors and providing constant support to accommodate the largest scale of traffic and customer visits e-commerce has witnessed across the country," the Flipkart statement said.
The company offered huge discount on mobile phones, consumer electronics, gold coins and other merchandise products.
Under the sale, Flipkart offered Nokia 1020 at Rs 19,999 which is about 60 per cent less than its launch price. Similarly, the company offered heavy discounts on books. Some products were on offer at discount of over 90 per cent.
