Flipkart to reduce marketing budget for sale events

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Jan 24, 2017

India’s leading e-commerce player Flipkart said that it will make minimum spends during its sale event from January 24 to January 26 on above the line (ATL) advertising in print and TV as the marketplace looks to rationalize its spends on marketing.

The current sale will see Flipkart spending its marketing dollars on digital and social media promotions instead of ATL spends.

"We spent one-fourth on marketing as compared to rivals during the Big Billion Days sale. We are focused on ensuring how can we spend less on this and pass on the benefits to the consumers," Smrithi Ravichandran, director at Flipkart told the Economic Times.

Flipkart incurred heavy losses last year especially due to it’s spends on advertising and marketing as it fought hard to protect its numero uno position in the Indian e-commerce market amidst tough competition from an aggressive Amazon.

The e-commerce industry which also saw a 30% setback in business as a result of 'demonetisation' in November is looking at the sale events as a means to make up for the losses during November-December 2016 period.