Amazon's Great Indian Festival begins on October 17, to run for a month

Ecommerce giant Amazon’s biggest sale of the year the Great Indian Festival will begin on October 17, a day after rival Flipkart’s, and for the first time, it will run for a month.

Following the coronavirus outbreak, festival season sales have become crucial as more and more customers are sticking to online channels to make purchases.

"It is going to be a month-long season of festivities and that is how we have designed this," Manish Tiwari, vice president Amazon India told reporters on October 6 during a virtual press conference.

Prime members will get access to the sale a day in advance.

Also read: Big Billion Days to start on October 16: Flipkart partners with Paytm to offer cashback

More than 6.5 lakh sellers, including one lakh local shops and kiranas, will participate in the flagship event.

As many as 900 new product launches are scheduled across categories such as smartphones, large appliances, consumer electronics, among other things. Brands such as Samsung, OnePlus, Apple, Boat, JBL, Sony, Sennheiser and Dabur will be launching new products during the sale.

According to research and consultancy firm Redseer, the overall gross merchandise value (GMV) of the online retailers during the month-long festival sale period is expected to touch $7 billion.

Tiwari didn't comment on the GMV or the expectation of growth in the sale. However, he said that multiple categories have seen tremendous growth following the pandemic. Mid-range smartphones, for instance, were witnessing high demand, given the requirement of multiple screens in a regular working household.

Similarly, the demand for essential clothing and open footwear had seen a spike.

Amazon is betting on easy finance options such as 10 percent instant bank discount on HDFC Bank debit and credit cards and EMI transactions.

There will also be “Alexa exclusive” deals, allowing customers to use voice to narrow their search for products.

This year, just 30-35 percent of the ecommerce shoppers are expected to come from metro cities, with 50 percent likely to be from Tier 2 and beyond cities, according to this Redseer. Around 20-25 percent will come from Tier 1 cities.