Flipkart beats Amazon hollow with sales figures of Rs 2,600 crore for June

Online retailer Flipkart seems to be on a roll even as the e-commerce market has been witnessing a slow growth for a while now. Flipkart has once again left Amazon behind and reported gross sales of over Rs 2,600 crore as against Amazon's figures of over Rs 2,400 crore for the month of June.

Compared to Amazon, Flipkart had recorded higher sales in May as well and the brand is known to get a boost from its fashion retailers Myntra and Jabong. Apart from its fashion sites, Flipkart's sales have seen a boost due to a high demand of smartphones and it has tied up with numerous popular brands, consistently conducting flash sales.

While Flipkart did not comment on its business and gross sales, Amazon said that the retailer was clearly growing at a fast pace even though the industry was witnessing a slowdown.

"We continued to see high growth momentum in the quarter, majorly driven by some big brand launches, the tremendous success of the Great Indian Sale in May and continued expansion and reach in India, with 80% of new customers in the quarter coming from lower- tier geographies," Live Mint quoted Amazon's spokesperson as saying.

"We track independent third parties that measure customer visits and app behaviour metrics and note that we continue to grow ahead of the market. We are delighted and humbled by the trust from our customers, to lead in India on things that matter to our customers in just four years of our business, while continuing to innovate for India and introduce new offerings."

Meanwhile, Amazon has been making aggressive efforts to expand its business in India and invested Rs 1,680 crore in its Indian arm earlier this month. This is being seen as Amazon's move to conquer the Indian online retail market, which is currently dominated by home-grown e-commerce firm Flipkart.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the US and spoke about the brand's commitment to India. "Always impressed, energized by optimism and invention in India. Excited to keep investing and growing," Bezos tweeted.

Reiterating Bezos' vision, an Amazon spokesperson opened up on the recent investment and said: "We remain committed to our India business with a long-term perspective to make e-commerce a habit for Indian customers and to invest in the necessary technology and infrastructure to grow the entire ecosystem.

We are delighted and humbled by the trust from our customers, to lead in India things that matter to our customers in just four years of our business, while continuing to launch innovative India-first initiatives as well as completely new offerings like Prime and Prime video."

On the other hand, Flipkart too intends to widen the gap when it comes to its lead in the online marketplace and has been bidding for bleeding online marketplace Snapdeal. The market leader had made a buyout offer of about $800 million on July 4, which Snapdeal had declined. It later is said to have revised its offer to $900-$950 million and Snapdeal was said to be evaluating the new offer.