Amazon, Flipkart see record festive sales as 'Bharat' logs onto e-commerce
Amazon.com Inc . and rival Walmart Inc. reported record revenue for their six-day India sales festivals as e-commerce catches on with buyers and sellers in smaller Indian towns, moving beyond the country’s urban, English-speaking population. The American competitors have been dueling in India since Walmart cut a $16 billion deal for control of local pioneer Flipkart Online Services Pvt last year. Their latest sales — which Amazon calls the Great Indian Festival and Flipkart calls Big Billion Days — are a high-stakes battle that ran on the same days and concluded over the weekend. Both focused on expanding their online commerce to smaller cities and rural areas, an enormous swath of the country known by its historic name of Bharat. Neither company gave specific revenue figures, though they claimed record activity. “ This has been our biggest celebration ever, a digital Bharat festival,” said Amit Agarwal, Amazon’s India chief, during a telephone call from his Bangalore headq