The later months of a calendar year are special in theIndian society. Festivals Christmas, Diwali, Dussehra glitter the ending monthswith their enjoyment, excitement, and festivities. Riding on the pleasant emotions of Indians associated withthese festivals, online shopping websites too have started an Indian version ofBlack Friday namely Flipkart’s Big Billion Days or Amazon’s Great IndianFestival. These shopping events have become a part of consumers’ knowledgeand they look forward to grab the deals on products they need or want.
The year 2020 is different. Pandemic COVID-19 has not only upendedthe lives of almost every individual and business, but also left the routinewishes and desires unanswered. In a world of social distancing, no non-essentialtravel, and a general ambiance of fear and distrust, shopping has been hit.
No one knew, of course, that something like this wouldunfold on the entire world like this without any warning. In the normal courseof business, sellers have stocked a certain amount of goods which were not soldin expected quantities due to the lockdown.
So, what we are seeing is an abnormally high amount of stockand thus a consequent locking up of working capital. Business basics teach notto tie up working capital in inventory unless there is a guarantee that thegoods will be sold at a much higher price.
What all this leads to is a high possibility of deepdiscounts in the upcoming sales on all online shopping websites. The discountswill probably reach the levels that were in the days when these websites werelaunched in 2015 and 2016. Further, delay and cancellations in export orders have resultedin an inventory that is choking the finances of companies.
The primary categories for the extra discounts could befashion, small electronics, appliances, personal care products, toys.
Another stimulus is the entry of Reliance’s online retailJioMart. Reliance has demonstrated a tendency to disrupt the markets they enterfor the first time with exceedingly high discounts e.g. 4G wireless dataservices were offered for free for a long period of time and resulted in athorough pounding of the companies in the Indian telecom space. A similar consequencecannot be ruled out for online retailing.
Whether an individual buys what they need or what they want,the coming weeks could prove to be a pleasant surprise when Flipkart’s BigBillion Sale goes live from October 16 to October 21 and Amazon’s Great IndianFestival starts on October 17 for non-Prime members while for Prime members thesale starts on October 16.