Amazon's 'Great Indian Festival' sale to begin on October 4

Amazon India on Friday said it will kick off its festive season sale — The Great Indian Festival (GIF) — from October 4, that will see participation from lakhs of small sellers, including over 75,000 local shops.

"This year's Great Indian Festival is a celebration of the resilience of local shops and small and medium sellers. We are humbled by their spirit and delighted with the opportunity to partner and enable their growth, especially in view of recent challenges owing to the pandemic," Amazon India Vice President Manish Tiwary told reporters.

He added that the company continues to innovate and offer the widest selection, value and convenience, while ensuring fast delivery as customers gear up for the festive season.

Amazon India has over 8.5 lakh sellers on its marketplace.

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Festive season sees players holding multiple sale events, timed around Dussehra and Diwali.

Rival, Flipkart will host its annual 'The Big Billion Days' sale from October 7-12 this year. Amazon's GIF, however, will be a month-long event.

GIF 2021 will include over 1,000 new product launches from brands such as Samsung, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Levi’s, Adidas, American Tourister, Pedigree and others.

The event will also include products from Amazon sellers under various programs like Amazon Launchpad, Amazon Saheli and Amazon Karigar.

Tiwary cited a recent study commissioned by the company and conducted by Nielsen to state that sellers on Amazon.in are optimistic about this festive season, and that 98 per cent of the surveyed sellers said technology adoption and e-commerce have positively impacted their business.

Also Read | Flipkart to host Big Billion Days from October 7-12

E-commerce companies see a large chunk of their business coming in during the festive sales and they make significant investments ahead of time to ramp up their capacity and add features to be able to handle the spike in orders, while ensuring a smooth experience for shoppers and sellers.

According to consulting firm RedSeer, e-commerce platforms are expected to potentially clock over $9 billion gross GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) during the festive season this year as against $7.4 billion last year - a growth of 23 per cent.

During the first week of the festive season, these platforms are expected to register 30 per cent year-on-year growth in gross GMV to $4.8 billion. Gross GMV refers to the total value of goods sold on the platform prior to subtracting cancellation or return.

The report highlighted that in terms of categories, mobile will continue to dominate – driven by new launches – and account for 11 per cent of the gross GMV ($4.8 billion) in the first week of festive sale.

The Electronics and Appliances category is expected to grow (from 14 per cent share festive sales last year to 16 per cent this year), while fashion is also expected to see a steady recovery this festive season - in line with greater outdoor mobility of consumers and steady rebound of fashion/office wear.

Affordability constructs, including EMIs and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) are expected to be a strong growth lever in this category, the report had said.

Tiwary said three broad categories — electronics, fashion and everyday essentials — are likely to do well during GIF 2021.

"Customers do look forward to Diwali for multiple shopping needs and I would bucket it in three broad areas, first is electronics... second is everything around fashion and beauty... the third one which is a critical bucket is everyday needs, everything from home to grocery..." he added.

He noted that Amazon India has created more than 1.1 lakh seasonal job opportunities across its operations network. It has expanded its fulfilment network by increasing its storage capacity by 40 per cent with more than 60 fulfilment centres in 15 states offering a 43 million cubic feet to its sellers.

It also ramped up its delivery infrastructure and has close to 1,700 Amazon-owned and partner delivery stations, close to 28,000 ‘I Have Space’ partners and thousands of Amazon Flex delivery partners.

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