Will Amazon's great Indian festival crash Flipkart and Snapdeal's big billions?

With the festive season round the corner, e-commerce firms are drawing up big plans to lure customers and set their cash counters ringing. Flipkart on Monday announced it would hold its Big Billion day sale from October 2.

Its closest rivals Snapdeal and Amazon are yet to announce the sale schedule.

The Amazon India sale, too, is expected to start in the first week of October. We look at how the Indian arm of the US-based firm is gearing up for the big event.

Seller network 

The firm boasts of 250 per cent (year on year) growth in seller network and reached 1.2 lakh sellers mark in the April-June quarter. Amazon has added 20,000 sellers in the last 1.5 months. The rise in the number of sellers has led to an increase in the number of listed products on Amazon India to 80 million, say media reports. Flipkart, its closest rival, has around 1 lakh sellers to gain traction in the market. Both lag behind Snapdeal, which has around three lakh sellers.

Emphasis on delivery 

The firm recently announced expansion of its delivery network with addition of over 10,000 stores under its 'I Have Space' programme, taking the total to 12,500. The expansion will enable Amazon.in to efficiently manage deliveries across 22 states and union territories this festive season. Under the "I Have Space" programme, Amazon India partners with local store owners across different cities to deliver products to customers within a two-four km radius of their store. Some of these stores also double up as pick-up points and receive deliveries on behalf of customers.

Incentives to sellers 

The firm is holding events in India to impart training to sellers for the festive season. Incentives to sellers have been announced who display highly viewed products on their platforms. This will help the firm and sellers align their priorities to achieve revenue and sales target. 

Amazon seller cafes 

The online retailer is opening seller cafes across 24 cities and towns to offer on-ground help to merchants on its platform ahead of the festive season. The firm aims to make India its largest market after the US. The move will allow sellers to set up a new account for imaging or cataloguing help, or any other issues that they face. 

Funding plans 

Amazon's founder and CEO Jeff Bezos committed $3 billion in June 2016 for its Indian operations. A major portion of this expenditure is expected to be spent on the festive season sale. The company is expected to spend Rs 125-130 crore in marketing and advertising budget. In 2014, the firm had invested $2 billion in India operations.