Priyanka Sahay Moneycontrol News
Global sale event Black Friday is catching up in India with e-commerce firms participating it in a big way and they have lined up multiple offers to woo consumers. Amit Sinha, who heads Paytm Mall and Srinivas Mothey, Vice President, speak to Moneycontrol about this event and how it has evolved for the Indian market.
Q. What is the significance of Black Friday sale in India?
Srinivas Mothey: Since the last two years, Paytm Mall, Amazon and Flipkart have been trying to popularise these sale events and there is excitement among the consumers. Most of the e-commerce companies have been looking to make most of these trends. Even during the Alibaba Singles day sale, both sale and traffic at our website had gone up.
Q. What sort of growth in sale in expected during this period?
Srinivas Mothey: Since the morning, our overall numbers have been higher -- 1.5-2x compared to the regular days of this month.
Q. How was Singles’ Day for Paytm Mall?
Srinivas Mothey: It was good but not as much as the sale during Diwali and Dusshera.
Q. Will Paytm Mall be able to match the Diwali numbers during Black Friday sale?
Amit Sinha: I don't think so. But it would be somewhere in the range of 60-70% of an average Diwali day sale. Our traffic is widely distributed across the country and so we do not expect Black Friday sale to be as big as Diwali.
People from tier-3 and 4 cities don't know much about this sale but we definitely feel that in the next few years, this trend will get popular. From a supply side awareness, we are also trying to drive it.
Q. Currently in India, online sales mostly happen during Diwali and Dussehra. Do you think events like Black Friday will eventually become a trendsetter?
Amit Sinha: For this year or next year, it will not be as big. Currently, these sales as being driven by urban customers.
Srinivas Mothey: If we look at maturity of these events, they are dependent on tier-1 and 2 cities. But over a period these will mature. Paytm Mall has also started some interesting sale days such as Tech Tuesdays and Android Days.
Q. What sort of products are being sold so far?
Amit Sinha: Most of the products in Black Friday are gadgets and consumer electronics products. Initial trends have also shown that people are buying lot of our international collection products. We have a line of international products within electronics such as speakers, laptops mobile phones etc. Footwear collection has picked as well.
The average ticket size of the products in the electronic and mobile categories is Rs 15,000-20,000. Consumer electronics and footwear are upwards of Rs 700.
Q. What sort of a marketing budget has been lined up for Black Friday sale?
Amit Sinha: For the four day sale period, we are looking at roughly around Rs 50-60 crore of total spend. This is mainly going to be spent in online publicity and advertisements.
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