GOSF : What Does it mean for Sellers?

Google India is back again with the Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF) which will start today and go on till the 13th. During these 3 days, Google India has partnered with leading ecommerce websites in the country to give really attractive discounts on online products so that more people can go and buy online. This is similar to the Cyber Monday concept which exists in western countries.

GOSF was launched for the first time last year on December 12th, 2013 and was a one day only event. While many customers claimed that the discounts were not very attractive, participating ecommerce companies like Myntra, Indiatimes and Snapdeal said that the shopping festival boosted their traffic and sales in a big way. This year, GOSF promises more discounts on many more product categories thus making it a highly anticipated event. This year more than 200 ecommerce companies will be part of the festival. The festival has also tied up with upcoming Bollywood movie Dhoom 3 and will be offering official merchandise at discounted prices.

What is Google’s motivation?

Google doesn’t have an ecommerce business in India. So you must be wondering why the company is organizing a sale of such magnitude. Besides getting more people to shop online, the company wants more ecommerce sellers to use Google ads for their promotion and marketing activities. Even though this might be the actual reason behind Google and GOSF, it may also bring about positive impact for ecommerce sellers.

This festival will get more people to buy online because of the buy online and introduce them to many ecommerce websites. This will benefit the entire ecommerce ecosystem. As sellers, you should study this festival and the kind of deals that are being offered by companies on products. It makes perfect sense to emulate this approach for your products on your own or to join GOSF next year if you have your own online shop.

On a related note, we have published a post earlier which sheds some light on the kind of deals that Shopclues promotes. You should take a look.