BANGALORE: If you think that festival sales ended in India, hold your horses because it isn’t over yet. The upcoming Black Friday sales, which start from November 29, (Friday following Thanksgiving Day), have kept a lot of high-end brands, retailers as well as customers in India on the hook. Analysts predict that Black Friday sales this year could touch a record Rs 300 crore.
The sales period inspired by the American pop culture is usually awaited by high- earning individuals as well as millennials in the country waiting for global brands to offer deep discounts. The Black Friday sales in India over the past three years have seen a 10-15 times growth with some global as well as homegrown premium brands offering new products, discounts and other services to consumers.
While country’s largest e-tailer Amazon India has started a practice of opening its US-based platform for Indian customers during the mega sales season, there are other platforms such as Nyka who have Indianised the Black Friday sales. Nyka, a leading e-commerce platform in beauty and personal hygiene, has come up with the desi version of Black Friday called Pink Friday to cater to target customers in India. Many e-tailers have even tied-up with brick and mortar stores and initiated their on-ground activation programmes to drive their sales.
Global brands such as Bvlgari, Bentley, Jaguar, Nautica, Police, Faces Canada, Guerlain Makeup, Lottie London have partnered with e-commerce platforms in India to offer discounts as much as 70-80%. There are desi brands too fast catching with Black Friday sales fever, especially in FMCG, beauty and personal care segments.
Market researchers say the Black Friday sales in India have become a trend of late, especially among the millennials, the people in the high and disposable income bracket as well as those who travel widely. “So while Diwali, Dhanteras sales are usually for electronics, mobile phones, furniture segments, sales such as Black Friday get traction from brand loyalists who wish to purchase premium fragrances, makeup, grooming products and even wearables,” Swagata Sarangi, co-founder and CEO, Smytten, an online platform which will have a third edition of Black Friday sales, said.
He added that Smytten has this time around tie-up with global perfume and even Indian beauty brands who are introducing new ranges this time. “We have customers writing to us enquiring about various sales/discounts that will be offered by the brands, which means the concept is getting a lot of traction in the country,” Sarangi said.
Smytten has also engaged with customers seeking to help them try different brands under-sampling experience. Customers will need to pay a minimal amount to try a specific product from any brand which, according to Sarangi, will reduce early barrier to enter premium/ luxury market in India.
“Smytten has more than 500 brand partners offering 2000 products across categories and deliver more than 10 million samples per year at the consumer’s doorstep,” Sarangi added.