Flipkart is hosting what it claims to be its biggest sale today with discounts and offers across 70 categories. The online marketplace is calling it 'The Big Billion Day' and says it has dedicated 10,000 field staff to fulfill orders.
As part of the sale, the company says it is offering multiple items at price of Re 1, up to 30% off on smartphones, laptops starting Rs 15,000, fashion and perfumes at 50% off and toys at 50% off, among others. It's also hosting exchange offers on televisions and phones.
The sale started at 8am with some limited time, limited stock and partner offers. However, Flipkart is receiving flak for not being able to offer a good shopping experience and increasing the selling price before the start of the sale.
The site crumbled due to increased load throwing random errors. A large number of consumers were not getting order confirmation after making payments and some were not able to see items they added to their shopping cart.
Flipkart promised that it would resolve these issues and try to offer a better experience.Some consumers are also complaining that Flipkart cancelled orders even after assigning a delivery time slot and charging their cards. Kulbhushan Rakheja, a New Delhi resident, placed an order for a Philips LED TV, only to be informed three hours later that the order had been cancelled "due to high demand for the item and in order to provide all customers an equal opportunity." He says he plans to lodge a police complaint against the website.
The correspondent also faced some issues while placing an order and receiving a confirmation. The Flipkart website failed to display past and new orders for consumers.
While a lot of deals are now sold out, here are some good deals that can still be availed:
- Nokia Lumia 1020 available at Rs 19,999
- Rs 8,000 buyback discount on Motorola Moto X (Gen 2)
- Rs 3,500 off on Asus Fonepad 7
- JBL Pulse Bluetooth speaker at Rs 7,999
- Sony Bravia 32-inch LED TV at Rs 37,400
- Spice Dream Uno Android One phone at Rs 5,499
- Nexus 7 (2013) Wi-Fi at Rs 16,999
Flipkart is also offering additional 10% cash back (up to a predefined limit) on payments made through Citibank and Standar Chartered credit cards. Interestingly, Flipkart has also started selling new smartphones including Huawei Honor 6, Alcatel Onetouch Fire C and Lenovo Vibe Z2, on the website starting today. These phones are exclusively available on Flipkart.
Meanwhile, Flipart's competitors, Amazon and Snapdeal are also offering discounts on a large number of products to counter the sale. Snapdeal published a full-page newspaper ad with a message that cheekily said, "For others it's a big day. For us, today is no different."
Flipkart issued a statement attributed to founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, saying that the Flipkart website received a billion hits and achieved its 24 hour sales target of $100 million in GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) in just 10 hours. The statement does not talk about problems faced by consumers and the company has not responded to allegations of price discrepancies and arbitrary order cancelations. It only mentions that the Flipkart technology team was dedicated towards addressing errors and providing constant support to accommodate traffic and customer visits.
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