ShopClues, Snapdeal enter early Diwali Sale mode, avoid taking on Flipkart, Amazon

Even as large online marketplaces Amazon, Paytm Mall and Flipkart are yet to announce their dates for the annual Diwali sale, smaller players such as Shopclues and Snapdeal are catching the bandwagon early, in order to avoid the upcoming heavy discount competition.

This move to announce an early sale allows smaller e-commerce players with lower annual marketing budgets to catch cheaper media ad spots and attention of sellers than competing in peak festive time with large players.

This year’s Diwali sale is expected to offer huge discounts to users across Paytm, Flipkart and Amazon as all the three players are heavily stashed with billions of dollars invested in their companies, this year. Smaller players are trying to avoid this discount competition.

Gurgaon based online marketplace Shopclues has announced that it will run its annual Diwali sale- The ShopClues “Maha Bharat Diwali Sale” during September 21-28.

The companies claim that the sale will offer a wide range of products at flat 50 percent to 80 percent discount across Home and Kitchen, Electronics and Accessories, and Fashion and Lifestyle categories.

The customers can also look forward to the Diwali Flea Market, next month.

The Diwali Flea Market will be open for its customers from October 7 to October 10, 2017. It will have more than 10,000 festive utility and gifting products starting at Rs 29, the company said.

Struggling online marketplace Snapdeal, has already concluded a pre-Diwali three-day sale which started from September 1.

Snapdeal offered gift vouchers from BookMyShow and Yatra for every purchase made during the sale.

Sellers are also expected to move away their focus from small companies to larger marketplaces which are expected to offer attractive commissions.

This announcements by Snapdeal and Shopclues come at a time when e-commerce firms including Amazon, Paytm and Flipkart are gearing up for the Diwali season sale.