Big Billion Days sale: Flipkart eyes new customers to retain market leader tag

As the festive season inches closer, online retailers are drawing out strategies to make the most of it. Online retailer Flipkart plans to add a large number of new customers with this week's Big Billion Days sale to maintain its lead over arch rival Amazon India.

After a stellar performance in last year's Diwali sale, Flipkart is betting on smartphones, televisions and refrigerators to drive sales this year. The Big Billion Days is scheduled for September 20-24 this year, Mint reported.

"Last year's Big Billion Days was a lot about tapping into your existing user base, a lot about reactivating lapsed customers," Mint quoted Smrithi Ravichandran, senior director of Flipkart, as saying.

"But this year's Big Billion Days will be about a mixture of growing our repeat customers and also growing new users in triple-digit numbers. Owing to telecom players making inroads into Tier 2-3 cities and towns, over the past few months we have seen a huge increase in the number of Tier 2-3 shoppers," he added.

Many market analysts predict that sales during the festive period will be far higher compared to last year. They expect gross sales across online retailers to touch Rs 170 crore ($1.7 billion) in the festive sales period, as much as 62 percent higher than last year.

Alos read: Flipkart Big Billion Days: Huge discounts, exchange deals on Samsung Galaxy S7, iPhones and Moto phones

After Kalyan Krishnamurthy returned to Flipkart as the new Chief Operating Officer (CEO) he has given more emphasis to increase the company's focus on serving existing users. Currently, the online retailer has registered user base of more than 120 million people, reported the business daily.

But the firm is shifting its strategy after almost 15 months, where the company will focus on attracting new users besides serving its existing clientele.

"All our preparations have been toward ensuring that we give customers the best experience and broaden our lead. We've seen that every festive season gives a clear leadership for the next year and it sets the tone and changes the pace of customer (acquisition and retention)," Ravichandran said.

Amazon too changed its strategy to counter its Indian rival during the festive period. Quoting a senior official of Amazon, Mint reported that the company will invest less on marketing and it will instead pour cash into discounting.

Market experts opined that the Diwali sale will likely determine the course of the e-commerce market for the next few quarters.