Black Friday grips online shoppers

Chennai: Domestic e-commerce scene is all set to turn hotter with Indian e-tailers latching on to American retail concepts of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales luring local ‘shopoholics’.Though the online shopping space is already engaged in a discount war, e-tailers are hoping to take it to the next level by bringing in the US phenomenon that offers mega discounts.

The Friday following Thanksgiving Day heralds the Christmas shopping season and is marked by huge promotional sales up to 80 per cent discount by US retailers. It has been named Black Friday as it refers to retailers going back into black following huge sales volume.Pegged as one of the busiest shopping days of the US this year, an estimated £555 million is expected to be spent online by American online shoppers alone on this day.

What seems to be driving the optimism of these online firms are on making available products that are not available in the Indian market at the disposal of local consumers at US discount prices.“Our sales have almost been doubling every year since we brought this concept about two years ago,” said Mr Rahil Shah, co-founder and director, shopyourworld.com.

“And this year, we are looking at trebling sales and for the month of November alone, we expect Rs 7-10 crore,” he added. Though Black Friday falls on November 28, the gala Indian sale has gone live from November 21 to November 30. For this year, the website has particularly partnered with eBay India to promote the sale.“As part of Black Friday sale, we will be listing over 10,000 deals on ebay.in. These products will be available to consumers in Indian rupees at price inclusive of all import duties, international shipping charges and other charges as applicable in India,” said Mr Girish Huria, head of communications, eBay India.  The company has entered into a pact with Global Easy Buy to allow payments in Indian rupees.

However, analysts view the e-commerce discounts as another dotcom bubble waiting to burst. “These companies are just encashing elements of consumerism and not generating cash for themselves. Unless there is a perceptible cash flow plan for e-commerce firms, this is not a sustainable model,” said Mr Deep Mukherjee, director, India Ratings, a Fitch group company.