Bait and Switch: Flipkart made 600 Crores GVM on BigBillionday sale
- Thread starter swatkats
- Start date
Whatever I still think their infrastructure is not in place for such or any flash sales. Even today their site was not updating properly/was getting stuck/payment failures, cart was not updating and it was impossible to get to the customer service no.s all day thru, even for flipkart first-so much for the priority customer care!
quixand
Skilled
The numbers posted by Flipkart look extremely incredible! And I'm saying that with utmost neutrality. My order got cancelled 3 hrs. after confirmation today.
BTW Anybody who thinks their target was 1 Billion dollars for the day just be a little more realistic and pull up some Black Friday numbers.
Now I've supported some Black Friday Sales for US based client. And I know many others on this forum do the same.
These numbers here $100M in 10 Hrs. beat those by a mile (online sales).
These numbers could be exclusive of the Cancelled orders and only initial ordered numbers only, thereby bloating the entire Sales figure. Weren't they slapped with a huge fine recently?
But if these are correct numbers then hopefully these problems will be fixed next year because I can sympathise with the "Overload" situation.
Flipkart's capability & questionable marketing, pricing strategies are now in public domain. Poor Customer Experience while ordering are in public domain and the -ve vibe is very open now and not just restricted to forums.
Very mixed feelings about the whole thing. Have heard more about this first hand than ever before. People, from places where Flipkart do not deliver, have also logged onto the site trying to send items to nearest pickup location etc. you get the point.
I hope Amazon can do a better job in the coming months & hopefully Flipkart will not cancel my order next time.
BTW Anybody who thinks their target was 1 Billion dollars for the day just be a little more realistic and pull up some Black Friday numbers.
Now I've supported some Black Friday Sales for US based client. And I know many others on this forum do the same.
These numbers here $100M in 10 Hrs. beat those by a mile (online sales).
These numbers could be exclusive of the Cancelled orders and only initial ordered numbers only, thereby bloating the entire Sales figure. Weren't they slapped with a huge fine recently?
But if these are correct numbers then hopefully these problems will be fixed next year because I can sympathise with the "Overload" situation.
Flipkart's capability & questionable marketing, pricing strategies are now in public domain. Poor Customer Experience while ordering are in public domain and the -ve vibe is very open now and not just restricted to forums.
Very mixed feelings about the whole thing. Have heard more about this first hand than ever before. People, from places where Flipkart do not deliver, have also logged onto the site trying to send items to nearest pickup location etc. you get the point.
I hope Amazon can do a better job in the coming months & hopefully Flipkart will not cancel my order next time.
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I am pretty sure that the Flipkart's claims are just as fake as Apple's claims about so many millions of sales in x amount of time and their web site crashes are also just as doctored as Apple's own. I mean, in both cases, apart from relying on their word for it, who can verify the truth? Maybe Flipkart/Xiaomi are just taking a page of Apples own strategies? We don't know for sure...
But personally, what I find weird is that many people do not find any thing wrong about the folk who are trying to make a big profit buying multiple units of a hard to get retail item and then run an unauthorized retail business of them at 50% or more profit of each unit and without taking any direct or indirect tax liabilities that they ought to taking.
On the other hand, when the company that took the pains to get the item into the market through legit means and at a decent price after paying all the taxes etc, is unable to satisfy the demand either because they are deliberately limiting volumes to generate demand or they genuinely were not able to get enough volumes to cope with the demand, people treat it as an unpardonable sin for which they deserve nothing less than being burnt at the stake.
I don't agree with the way Xiaomi phones are being sold by Flipkart and if you don't like it you don't buy it. But how does one even know that they are doing it deliberately? We are a country with 125 crore population and people here rush to buy anything that that is cheap or bundles something for free. Can a company like Xiaomi's be able to cope with the demand even if they wanted to?
With regard to today's fiasco, they are being accused of misleading customers with bait and switch strategies, but is there anything outright illegal about what they have done/doing? I dare say that most of this is standard business text book stuff that most businesses employ on a regular basis. Not that it makes it aright, but honestly, is there any offline festive season discount sale which is not some sort of old stock clearance or some bait and switch kind of thing?
But personally, what I find weird is that many people do not find any thing wrong about the folk who are trying to make a big profit buying multiple units of a hard to get retail item and then run an unauthorized retail business of them at 50% or more profit of each unit and without taking any direct or indirect tax liabilities that they ought to taking.
On the other hand, when the company that took the pains to get the item into the market through legit means and at a decent price after paying all the taxes etc, is unable to satisfy the demand either because they are deliberately limiting volumes to generate demand or they genuinely were not able to get enough volumes to cope with the demand, people treat it as an unpardonable sin for which they deserve nothing less than being burnt at the stake.
I don't agree with the way Xiaomi phones are being sold by Flipkart and if you don't like it you don't buy it. But how does one even know that they are doing it deliberately? We are a country with 125 crore population and people here rush to buy anything that that is cheap or bundles something for free. Can a company like Xiaomi's be able to cope with the demand even if they wanted to?
With regard to today's fiasco, they are being accused of misleading customers with bait and switch strategies, but is there anything outright illegal about what they have done/doing? I dare say that most of this is standard business text book stuff that most businesses employ on a regular basis. Not that it makes it aright, but honestly, is there any offline festive season discount sale which is not some sort of old stock clearance or some bait and switch kind of thing?
There were most definitely some very good deals. Picked up an amd processor at ~600 (8.5%) below nehru place street price. Bought couple of nautica shirts for ~1500 each, whose regular retail price is about 3000. Also bought a Redmi for a friend. Add to that the 10% citibank cashback
Getting the order through was quite crazy. The cart kept emptying, then their payment processor kept showing 0 amount. Got the order through after some 30-40 minutes of trying
Getting the order through was quite crazy. The cart kept emptying, then their payment processor kept showing 0 amount. Got the order through after some 30-40 minutes of trying
kidrow
Adept
I think the major gripe for me (& I'm presuming many others), is that we are awaiting the day when a black fridayish sale becomes a reality in India. The advertising always promises something of that nature but it never holds true. For those of us who keep track of prices & deals, we find that there is nothing special in the sale. & that's disappointing.
Sure, we can debate FK's strategy & whether it's ethical or not till the cows come home. But we are a small minority, I believe. Most people, who are not yet regular online shoppers, were pretty happy yesterday because they felt that the deals were great. [Based on my unscientific observations of the goings-on yesterday in a few Mumbai offices]. That's of course, mostly because they are generally out-of-touch with current online prices, coupons, deals etc.
& so, life goes on.......
Sure, we can debate FK's strategy & whether it's ethical or not till the cows come home. But we are a small minority, I believe. Most people, who are not yet regular online shoppers, were pretty happy yesterday because they felt that the deals were great. [Based on my unscientific observations of the goings-on yesterday in a few Mumbai offices]. That's of course, mostly because they are generally out-of-touch with current online prices, coupons, deals etc.
& so, life goes on.......
bitsandpieces
Adept
exactly
But they have sold products at discounted prices as well
bitsandpieces
Adept
that doesn't matter as much as the fact that they sold. they could demonstrate the untapped market is still there.
This sale is not just about Flipkart. Its about companies selling their products, vendors, advertisers & investors. All of them get involved in something like this. All those full page Ads, TV ads ... its not just Flipkart footing the bill, all these other companies are in it too.
Flipkart has not been earning revenues. They have been able to sustain cause of heavy investments by people & funding.
They will have to show numbers from time to time as its part of their agreements with funding companies.
Its a long term game and game has lot of players & moves involved.
My best analysis from talking to people yesterday is that the investors & owners would be dissapointed at 100 million $ sale but its Flipkart's limitation in overheads and staff which is why they had to cap it in the end and stop the sale much before than expected. This year alone 1 billion $ was invested so 10% of that is poor in terms of just sale numbers. But its a start and a big thing in the Indian context and we can expect bigger sales in future too not only from Flipkart but other sites as well now.
Sale marketing - Success
Bad experiences for buyers - Poor but Flipkart doesnt care right now but it should care for next time.
The game has just started in India honestly and everyone is being cautious in their approach.
These numbers are peanuts compared to whats going on in US and China.
Flipkart has not been earning revenues. They have been able to sustain cause of heavy investments by people & funding.
They will have to show numbers from time to time as its part of their agreements with funding companies.
Its a long term game and game has lot of players & moves involved.
My best analysis from talking to people yesterday is that the investors & owners would be dissapointed at 100 million $ sale but its Flipkart's limitation in overheads and staff which is why they had to cap it in the end and stop the sale much before than expected. This year alone 1 billion $ was invested so 10% of that is poor in terms of just sale numbers. But its a start and a big thing in the Indian context and we can expect bigger sales in future too not only from Flipkart but other sites as well now.
Sale marketing - Success
Bad experiences for buyers - Poor but Flipkart doesnt care right now but it should care for next time.
The game has just started in India honestly and everyone is being cautious in their approach.
These numbers are peanuts compared to whats going on in US and China.
avi
Skilled
I am very pissed at Flipkart and I am taking this fiasco to next level. I am filing a case in consumer court against them and I will represent all the butt hurt peepul. Please support me. You can donate me some monies to keep it going.
I have spoken with my lawyer Laxman Jethmalai and we are filing a strong case. Damages will be in Billion dallars. Our case:
TLDR; Flipkart you are going down for this. I am coming. kthxbi.
I have spoken with my lawyer Laxman Jethmalai and we are filing a strong case. Damages will be in Billion dallars. Our case:
- FK shouldn't have sent me a newsletter. Nowhere I agreed to receive them.
- The newsletter should have mentioned the number of units available.
- Also, entire Flipkart inventory details. They did not, this is clearly misleading and bait & switch.
- Flipkart, hacked all of our computers and so whatever site I opened it redirected to Flipkart. Hacking is illegal in India (and yeah Happy B'day Sunny)
- Not only that, they also bribed BSNL, Airtel and other major ISP providers so that any HTTP request would go to Flipkart (I haz proof)
- Because of #4 and #5, I had no other option other than to open Flipkart all day.
- Due to #6, I wasted my whole time. Time == Money.
- When I tried to go out of my home for fresh air, Flipkart goons stopped me and made me to browse the site again
- Earlier they used to sell Redmi in batches. Since they sold 1.5L something yesterday, now I cannot show off my exclusive Redmi
- I also sell Redmi on OLX at MRP for profits. Now due to #9, my business is hurt. Flipkart is hurting small innocent business owners like me. This is unfair bijness.
- Flipkart altered the prices before sale went live. And they increased it. It's completely illegal to do that doesn't matter if price is below MRP or not.
- Flipkart is a public company (coz I haz access to it publicly) and they cannot alter prices. They should start a poll and ask users. Something like 'SMS YES or NO to 8888' (usual SMS charges they may apply)
- They said they are going to sell pen drives at 1re. I don't care how many got it, but I didn't, so I have sore butt now. Since medicines are costly in India, they should provide me help/monies for it.
- Coming to #13, assuming 1Cr people visited their site, all of them deserve 600 INR pen drive at 1Re. I don't understand economics, math or business, but since everyone gets a pen drive everyone would have been happy.
- They couldn't handle large traffic. Its like you invite your friends to your party, but you don't have space for all of them and they end up encroaching neighbours space. Which is totally illegal.
- My
fartcart kept on going empty. That gave me headaches. - They deliberately removed features like 'reviews' from their site so that no would review bad practices of flipkart.
- They were not replying me and my friends on Facebook & twitter. This is bad customer care.
TLDR; Flipkart you are going down for this. I am coming. kthxbi.
AMG
Skilled
swatkats
Skilled
Not all sellers have come on board to share the tab with the online retailer. A senior executive of a leading consumer electronics retail chain said the discounts are driven entirely by the marketplaces. "We as a seller did not even know that few of our listed products would get discounted for these flash sales," he said, requesting anonymity.
Another seller said the company had listed its models at the existing market price in the offline trade. "But we were shocked to see that the product has been sold at a discount which is actually lower than our buying price. But we have been assured we will get the full amount at which we have listed it," he said.
Since online retail is a nascent industry, companies are not too perturbed by negative margins, and investors are backing the game plan of acquiring customers at the expense of the bottomline.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/44552438.cms
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