Kishore Biyani, the CEO of Future Group never made a secret of his contempt for the e-commerce competitors. Now, he plans to step the odious with a slew of ads that make use of the wordplay in order to target the major marketplaces Flipkart, Amazon, and Snapdeal with Flip the Cart, Amaz-Off, and Snap the Deal respectively.
Probably, the first time that a brick-and-mortar retailer will involve in a comparative advertising against the e-commerce rivals that have been gaining more market share by just offering discounted products across categories.
After almost three years of high discounting, most of the online vendors have started taking a reverse step from this discount strategy in an effort to boost their finances that makes them highly vulnerable on this aspect. The e-commerce discount are limited to some brands like old merchandise, own labels, and online exclusives.
The overall losses of the three leading e-commerce companies such as Amazon, Snapdeal and Flipkart ballooned from Rs 1,000 crore in the fiscal year 2014 to Rs 5.052 crore in the fiscal year 2015. The brick-and-mortar stores have clocked double digit growth in the sales in the last year that is a reverse in the trend in the previous year. The physical stores have reported restrained demand as the online players lured the consumers.
These days, the brick and mortar retailers are investing in the omni channel strategies and they are experimenting with the global models including flash sales by providing a single product for the sale for almost 24 hours to 36 hours. Even ShopersStop and Decthalon, DLF Promenade and Oberoi Mall roped in discussions with Shouut for the flash sales. The flash sales model will let the customers purchase at huge discounts and offers on many brands using an application but it will be for some hours or days in the physical stores.
