US-focused disounts make Black Friday sale a white space in India

If you enter the Amazon India website over the weekend, it has an orange banner on display saying ‘up to 50 per cent off on international brands’. This sale will go on till Monday on the e-commerce website. Similarly rival Flipkart has a Black Friday sale running from November 26-30 with some good deals on mobile phones. Even hospitality websites such as Booking.com are giving discounts of up to 30 per cent on stays until December 31.

Retail chains such as Shoppers Stop are marketing this sale as Black Friyay with up to 50 per cent discount on branded apparel and accessories. While international brands such as Vero Moda and Marks & Spencer have several deals running during the weekend, homegrown brands such as Forest Essentials are also giving out free gifts during Black Friday.

While Diwali sale is the biggest shopping carnival in India, Black Friday sales hold similar significance in the US which mark the beginning of the Christmas season. For Indian companies, it has become another event post Diwali to keep customers hooked to their websites as the next big sale is rolled out around the year-end during Christmas. However, post Diwali weeks are dull here as most of the shopping budget is spent during Dussehra and Diwali period in the country.

ALSO READ: Farm sector maintains robust growth in Q2, GVA up 7.7% at current prices

“This is just another opportunity for people to buy something that they missed out on during the Diwali sale,” says Pinakiranjan Mishra, Partner and National Leader, Consumer Products and Retail, EY India. This sale however has the potential to become a big event in India like the Independence Day sale that was started by the Future Group and later became quite popular. “It is a question of how much hype is created around it,” he says.

Brand experts too say while it is still an alien concept in India, it has the potential to take off in the country. “There is a mismatch here but there are events such as Valentines Day which were a mismatch when they were first started in India but today are a big hit. So if marketers continue to invest behind this event, it can become big,” says brand expert Harish Bijoor.

While at Amazon, over 70,000 Indian exporters on Amazon’s Global Selling program are geared up to showcase millions of made in India products to customers across the world on the annual Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale on Amazon.com, there are limited offers on the India website.

“Most of the big discounts are US-focussed. But since we are now living in a more connected ecommerce world, companies try to create some buzz with the help of these events,” says Satish Meena, senior forecast analyst at Forrester.

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

We, however, have a request.

As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.

Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.

Digital Editor