Most Indians are known to make their biggest purchases around the upcoming festive season, a lot of gifting and buying activity takes place at this time of the year. India's e-commerce firms usually go into overdrive during this period, offering hefty sales and big discounts, along with massive media campaigns. For India's deal-savvy online audience, it's an opportunity to get the best VC-subsidised swag before stocks run out. So, next week, we will have Snapdeal Electronics Monday Sale competing against Flipkart's Big Billion Days and Amazon's Great Indian Festive Sale.
Snapdeal saw some backlash on social media for its big sale last year, though ultimately it registered impressive sales. In many ways, the year has been a long run up to the Snapdeal Electronics Monday Sale, because the company philosophy is that boring is good, in terms of avoiding a last-minute firefight. The firm has invested over 100 million dollars in logistics, and made a recent investment in fulfilment service provider Gojavas as well.
"From our new look, and all the other efforts we've done in supply chain and logistics, and capabilities that we've built, such as 30 minute refunds for COD deliveries, the launch of the FreeCharge wallet, all of these launches were geared for this moment in mind," Snapdeal Chief Product Officer Anand Chandrasekaran told Gadgets 360.
"Every Diwali, what we find is that the traffic to our app and Web experiences increases many fold. That's not surprising," he adds. "What is surprising is that the week after Diwali, the traffic doesn't go back to what it was before. It becomes the new normal every year."
Snapdeal revved up its engines a week ago with the Monday Preview Sale held on September 29th, where Snapdeal claims it saw 10x growth in sales, and a 6x growth in orders, compared to an average day. This paves the way nicely for Snapdeal Electronics Monday Sale.
(Also Read:Snapdeal Monday Electronics Sale: What to Expect)
Snapdeal is capable of handling twenty times the traffic and volume that it saw in 29th September, Chandrasekaran says, adding that the highest order volume came from Bengaluru. "That's a new thing for us. We sold on average three smartphones per second," Chandrasekaran says, adding that the top three selling smartphones were the Micromax Canvas Spark, Samsung Galaxy Grand Max, and the iPhone 6. During that 24 hour period, Snapdeal saw over 5 million app downloads, he adds, without forcing its users or giving app-only discounts.
"It's making your life more difficult. From our perspective, we want to get out of the way," says Chandrasekaran. "The deals work in all platforms. Users will download the app in droves, once you give them what they want. From our perspective, we've got to be where the users are."
"I don't wake up in the morning and think about your sale, I think about what I need to do during the festive season," he says, explaining the user's perspective as the company gears up for the Snapdeal Electronics Monday Sale.
(Also see: Flipkart's Big Billion Days Sale: What You Can Expect and How to Make the Most of It)
Chandrasekaran also spoke about Project Wicklamp, which was rolled out after Snapdeal appointed Harish Sivaramakrishnan as Vice President, Design, from his previous role as head of UX and design at FreeCharge. Snapdeal's homepage now sports an animated logo themed around Diwali, as it aspires to be a platform that amplifies people's feelings. A lot more of such 'storification' events will happen during the Snapdeal Electronics Monday Sale and the entire festival season, says Chandrasekaran, who explains that this is all part of the brands preparations for what he calls the company's 'world cup final' moment.
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