Flipkart beats Amazon, Snapdeal in season’s first sale event

India's home-grown online retailer Flipkart has outsold arch rival Amazon as well as third-placed Snapdeal during the first sale event of the festive season that covered five days ending Thursday.

The Bengaluru based Flipkart recorded unit sales of 15.5 million compared with 15 million units for the US-based online retailing giant, according to The Mint.

The combined sales of all the three ecommerce entities was pegged at around Rs6,500 crore, up 20 per cent over the previous year, according a report in Financial Express.

Flipkart's five-day Big Billion Days (BBD) sale event registered gross sales of approximately Rs3,000 crore, the Mint report said. Industry sources told FE that the five day sale netted Flipkart a total gross merchandise value (GMV) of around Rs2,200.

Gross sales of Rs3,000 crore, however, appear to be far short of than Flipkart's internal target to achieve gross sales of Rs4,000-5,000 crore during the sale season.

Earlier this week, Flipkart said that the company recorded its highest-ever single day sales on Monday, selling products worth Rs1,400 crore.

''Flipkart's Big Billion Days is one of the signposts that defines our vision for transforming commerce in India by delivering high quality products to every customer that shops on Flipkart and to make these products accessible and affordable," the Mint quoted a Flipkart spokesperson as saying.

Although Amazon India's sales numbers in value terms were unavailable, its figures are likely to be lower than those of Flipkart, the Mint report said.

The FE reported that Amazon India's GMV stood at Rs1,550 crore-Rs1,650 crore, up 41 per cent from the previous year. Snapdeal's GMV sales rose 7 per cent over the previous year to Rs800 crore.

A day earlier, The Times of India reported that US retail giant Amazon's Indian arm registered orders of around 1.5 crore units during the sale season, which could translate into Rs3,000-3,500 crore of gross sales.

Snapdeal claimed that nearly 11 lakh buyers from over 2,800 cities and towns across India bought products on its marketplace in the first 16 hours of its sale.

Flipkart's impressive sales numbers, both in volume and value, comes as a major respite to the company, especially given its subdued sales performance earlier this year and Amazon's rapid march backed by its deep pockets.