Flipkart suspends grocery services amid Big Billion Days rush

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Flipkart suspended its grocery delivery services after suffering an outage on Tuesday as the rush of people overwhelmed the platform amid its annual ‘Big Billion Days’ festive sale.

The Flipkart Grocery service was down on the app as well as the web. “Please come back tomorrow. We are overwhelmed by your response,” said a banner as users landed on the grocery section of the app.

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The annual ecommerce festive sale kicked off on October 8 this year with Amazon and Flipkart providing early access to members on October 7.

Myntra’s Big Fashion Festival also went live around the same time, while Snapdeal will run its festive season sale, called ‘Toofani Sale-Festive Dhamaka’, from October 8-15.

ET reported earlier on Tuesday that discounts and promotional offers reduced on the third day of the online festive sales, as brands and online sellers overachieved their targets, reporting a 25-30% surge in sales by value compared to the same sale period last year.

This period is the largest for ecommerce sales in India, both in terms of discounts offered and business generated. Analysts expect sales to hit between $9.7 billion and $11 billion in gross merchandise value terms this festive season, rising roughly 15-16% from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, Amazon launched a shopping-only version of its Prime membership, called Prime Shopping Edition, ahead of the sale season.

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