Flipkart experiments with new sale formats

Flipkart has definitely learned its lesson after the Big Billion Day debacle last year. The ecommerce giant is now trying out a different sale format, wherein deals & discounts on only one category at a time will be put out to customers.

New sale format

Flipkart is a huge marketplace that sells products under multiple categories. Instead of an all-inclusive sale, the marketplace will now present one category each time. They first experimented in February around Valentine’s Day with Lifestyle category.

Next one to go up was the home category with ‘Home Shopping Days’ sale that happened on 21st and 22nd April. The ecommerce firm just concluded Electronics sale on 28th April and is currently hosting ‘Bookmark It’ book sale.

Will it work?

It seems to be working. The response from shoppers for home category sale was huge as Flipkart’s sales grew 7 times and the traffic 3 times. Their mobile app traffic increased too, which is good news as the ecommerce company plans to become App-Only store soon. Single category sale helps to attract more shoppers as opposed to a blanket-sale on all products. Also, it is much easier to chalk up interesting deals and creative promotional ideas when the focus is on one segment.

Flipkart’s other tactics

In order to maintain its top position in the ecommerce industry, Flipkart has decided to make the best of their merger with Myntra. Plans to share common infrastructure, particularly logistics and warehousing are being discussed between both the ecommerce companies. If this materializes then Flipkart’s supply chain will become more efficient. Since logistics is one of the most challenging & pricey aspect of ecommerce, this is a great step towards optimizing operations and reducing costs.

Flipkart continues to play smart in order to stay on top. Let’s see what will be their next strategic move.