Ecommerce companies set to run smartphone sales show this festival season
Amazon and Flipkart, are tipped to outdo brick-and-mortar shops in wooing smartphone buyers this festive season, offering discounts and deals even the most fastidious of shoppers can't seemingly refuse.
Experts believe the big guns of e-commerce will corner nearly three-fifths of the smartphone market this festive season that begins with Ganesh Chaturthi. Discounts and deals, customised through smart and targeted marketing, are aimed at offsetting the sluggish start to the year for the category that remains among the biggest discretionary purchases in India.
Better pricing deals from phone makers for the online channels are expected to tilt the scales in their favour. «Overall, the split is expected to be 50:50 for the second half of the year, but online is expected to grow faster than offline during the festive season because of the ongoing tiff with retailers over preferential pricing which is going to increase during the festive season sales,» said Upasana Joshi, research manager, IDC India.
Differential Pricing Issue
Big-selling brands, such as Samsung and Realme, have had their differences with brick-and-mortar stores over differential pricing, and the issue is unlikely to be resolved before the season ends. Large online platforms, such as Flipkart, have already started shoring up their capacities ahead of the festive season sales. The Walmart-owned firm has opened 11 new fulfilment centres, across 9 cities, bringing the total to 83 across the country.
The platform has also opened 100,000 new jobs across
