Amazon's Great Indian Sale: Discounts and offers to look forward to

2017 turned out to be an exceptional year for India's e-commerce industry. Backed by countless rounds of aggressive sales by the two major players – Flipkart and Amazon – the industry scaled new highs. It appears 2018 could see a repeat of the same. 

Details of the year's first major sale have emerged after Amazon announced that the first instalment of its Great Indian Sale will kick off on January 21 before ending three days later on January 24. The sale will bring with it great discounts and offers on more than four million products including smartphones, home appliances and accessories. 

Like most Amazon sales, Prime members will get early access to the sale with a 12-hour window ahead of other buyers. For Prime members, the sale will begin at 12pm on January 20.

What's on offer

Though more details will emerge in the days to come, Amazon has revealed that it will be offering discounts on smartphones from Apple, Samsung, OnePlus and other companies during the duration of the Great Indian Sale. The website will also offer additional cashback offers – additional 10 percent discount with HDFC debit and credit cards – that will see purchase prices coming further down. 

Amazon will be offering a discount of up to 40 per cent on mobiles and accessories, besides heavy discounts on Kindle products, the FireTV stick and eBooks. Apart from these, other electronic devices will also be up for grabs with up to 55 per cent off. 

The company is also offering up to 75 per cent off on home and dining products, while home and kitchen appliances will be offered at up to 50 per cent off.

During the sneak peak, the portal also revealed it will offer up to 60 per cent discounts on books and games. 

Amazon hires temporary staff

Faced with growing competition from the homegrown player, Flipkart, the US-based e-commerce giant is looking to get off to a good start with this sale. So much so that it has created more than 6,500 temporary jobs for its mega sale later this month, according to PTI. According to Amazon India vice president (customer fulfilment) Akhil Saxena, more than 5,500 of the "seasonal positions" have been created across Amazon India's network of fulfilment centres, sortation centres and delivery stations.

"This enhancement will be instrumental in driving an exceptional experience during the upcoming Great Indian Sale. These thousands of associates will help in augmenting our capabilities to serve our customers better and enable us to deliver consistently high levels of customer experience," Saxena said.

Over the last few years, India has emerged as one of Amazon's major markets. The e-commerce giant has committed to investing more than $5 billion (approx Rs 31,720 crore) in the Indian market, of which it has already pumped in a significant portion in improving its infrastructure in the country. 

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