Flipkart Big Billion Days Sale to Be App-Only, Start October 13

Flipkart on Monday announced that this year's Big Billion Days sale will kick-off October 13, and end on October 17. Last year's Big Billion Day sale enraged buyers for 'cheating' on discounts and problems faced by users while making purchases, from site crashes to wrong prices and other errors.

"As an app-only shopping event, our 'big billion days' have exciting offers and discounts across 70 product categories for customers," Flipkart said in an emailed statement.

Unlike last year when the sale was for a day (October 6) and also accessible via the website, which the company claimed had a received billion hits, the sale next month is spread over five days to celebrate the ensuing festive season. Thus, it is called Big Billion Days.

(Also see:  Snapdeal Preview Monday Sale Kicks Off)

"The sale will be special to shop for gifts and other items. Customers can shop for apparels, footwear, mobiles, furniture, laptops, toys, large appliances, jewellery, watches or home furnishing items," Flipkart's commerce platform head Mukesh Bansal said in the statement.

Fashion portal Myntra, in which Flipkart bought majority stake for an estimated Rs. 2,000 crores in May 2014, will also be a part of the special sale with a curated selection.

"India shops the most during this time of the year. With 75 percent of traffic coming via mobile, we expect this 'app only' sale to be the biggest shopping event of the year," Bansal, who is also Myntra's chairman, noted.

(Also see: Flipkart's Big Billion Days Sale: What You Can Expect and How to Make the Most of It)

To avoid a repeat of the last year's chaotic sale, resulting in its co-founders apologising and admitting to inadequate preparedness, the company has worked to ensure a seamless shopping experience for its 50-million customers.

"We have opened new fulfilment centres across the country to guarantee efficient delivery. We have also ramped our technology and supply chain support to meet the huge customer demand.... We have also roped in our partner banks to give Flipkart customers exclusive offers during 'Big Billion Days," Bansal added.

The eight-year-old company claims to offer about 30 million products across 70 categories, including books, media, consumer electronics and lifestyle.

With 50-million registered users and 33,000 employees, the portal gets about 10 million hits daily and delivers eight million shipments per month.