I was following Flipkart’s promotion of the  “The Billion Day” on 6th October (the date of the sale is the number of the flat that the business started out from) and was very impressed by the timing of the sale.Here are 3 top factors that Flipkart has considered to convert this event into a massive success :–

1.A few weeks from now, Diwali (one of the biggest festivals celebrated in India ) would have diluted any attempts to get users’ attention,simply because of the huge volume of various players offering discounts.

2.Other problems such as logistics/delivery issues that could arise during festival times were reduced greatly because of the timing of the event.

3.Most people time their purchases to coincide with the Diwali season because of the huge discounts.

Also,with the introduction of Amazon into the Indian e-commerce space,Flipkart came up with the perfect plan to ensure that it made a killing before other players could fathom what was happening.

This is also an amazing solution for people who compete for eyeballs during festivals/events–>

Create your own event.

Addendum: Flipkart sent out an apology letter the next day (Oct 6th) publicly explaining the reasons for the inadequacies and hassle that a large number of users experienced while shopping(Nothing like an apology to warm the hearts of the Indian Public). Also.though the site had a billion hits only 1.5 million people bought products—makes you wonder the scale of window-shopping that must have taken place!!

Further Reading :

Flipkart apologizes to customers for Big Billion Day sale glitches