War of Words: Flipkart and Amazon claim No. 1 spot in Diwali sales

Diwali

As the annual Diwali e-commerce sales conclude in India, a war of words has started amongst internet firms Amazon and Flipkart who are claiming to be have outdone each other.

Flipkart continues to claim 70 percent of the online sales this festive season, even as Amazon is reported to have achieved 44 percent market share in all transactions recorded.

"Flipkart bagged and continues to enjoy its numero uno status with sales equal to 70 percent of the entire online e-commerce market in India. During the festive period, we made competition irrelevant by surpassing them with a disproportionate share of sales," Smrithi Ravichandran, senior director at Flipkart told Moneycontrol.

"This year, we garnered a disproportionate market share across all parameters, making everyone else irrelevant. The trends are consistent with the observations of other independent research and surveys, which have also said that Flipkart was the unquestionable leader this festive season," she added.

Flipkart's statement can be attributed to a report by Bangalore based market research firm Redseer that came out after the first five days of festive sales earlier this month.

Also Read: Amazon attacks RedSeer Consulting on Diwali sale rankings, firm retorts

The report claimed that Flipkart led the USD 1.5 billion sales this festive season with a 58 percent market share on the basis of the gross merchandise value of goods sold.

Amazon India, on the other hand, has quoted an IMRB study stating that it had the highest number of transacting customers and the number of order placed with it was over 42 percent of total transactions in India during the period.

The companies have however refrained from disclosing gross merchandise value or the number of units sold.

Meanwhile, Noida based Paytm Mall that participated in the festive sale this year claimed a 20 percent market share It also claims to have achieved an annualised GMV of approximately USD 4 billion.

Flipkart said that during the Big Billion Day sale, it opened over 250 new towns and villages in India from where customers placed orders.

"We have seen an increase of over 1000 percent in orders from remote locations such as Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram. The split of customers is about 60 percent for metros and Tier I cities, and 40 percent from Tier II, III and IV towns and villages," said Ravichandran.

While Amazon did not share an explicit percentage, it said that over 86 percent of its new customers came from small towns.

On the back of the festive season, Flipkart now claims 70 percent market share in the online smartphones market and 60-65 percent market share in the large appliances category which includes TVs, refrigerators, washing machines.

However, all top e-commerce companies have refrained from sharing the exact value or units of goods sold. Both Amazon and Flipkart attribute third-party research data to claim a dominant market position in Asia’s second-largest retail market.