http://smartinvestor.business-standard.

com/mf/mfNewsFeature-mfnews-271252-Flipka
rts_Big_Billion_Day_under_ED_scanner.htm#.VMX9bf6UeSoOnline sale promotion state
gies should be designed in such a way they are well within the limits of the exi
sting regulatory framework for online businesses.Legal provisions pertaining to
foreign exchange management act (FEMA), national taxation laws, cyber law due
diligence (PDF), cyber security due diligence, e-commerce due diligence, have to
be taken into consideration while crafting the promotional content. There are s
everal cases where the, enforcement directorate (ED) has initiated investigatio
n against big e-commerce players like Myntra, Flipkart and other e-commerce webs
ites operating in India.Following the Big Billion Day, allegations were
After the Big Billion Day sale, many consumers were left disgruntled because of
poor consumer experience and inflated prices. The popular response to the sale
also left competitors bitter with the traditional traders lobby complaining to th
e department of industrial policy and promotion, seeking policy intervention.The
Competition Commission of India has initiated a preliminary enquiry into the ma
tter, but there are indications that there may not be a case of predatory pricin
g against Flipkart.
http://smartinvestor.business-standard.com/mf/mfNewsFeature-mfnews-271252-Flipka
rts_Big_Billion_Day_under_ED_scanner.htm#.VMX9bf6UeSo
Channels : Some insights from the front lines of determining ad channels1. For multi-channel attribution modeling to work, all the marketing
campaigns (Search, Social, Email, Display, Affiliate, others) must be
100% tagged with campaign tracking parameters . Tag the Bing
campaigns. Tag the Email campaigns. Tag the Social campaigns.
2. One of the exercises is to do the above analysis based on Cost Per
Acquisition, rather than just conversions. One may get a lot of
conversions, but the CPA can get more complex. One needs to upload
cost data into GA for my Social, Referral, Organic Search (yes, it costs
money), and Email campaigns.
3. There is no need to do attribution analysis for all your conversions in
aggregate. One can do attribution modeling uniquely and optimize the
marketing efforts just for an ecommerce transaction. Or one can do it for
email subscription signups, or downloads, or videos played or anything
else one considers to be important.
Inventory planning
Shoppers love them and look forward to the next one. They include % off deals, B
OGO s, and Free Shipping when purchasing over a certain dollar amount. Organizatio
ns search for the perfect Promotion that will increase sales, gross margin dolla
rs, and customer loyalty, while enhancing their brand.

For the Inventory Management team, preparing for the Promotion and analyzing res
ults afterwards are just as important as developing the Promotion itself.
Promotion planning requires purchasing extra inventory to cover the forecasted s
pike in sales. Planners are charged with estimating the increase in sales and pu
rchasing additional inventory to accommodate it. For example, when you offered 2
0% off all shoes last year, your shoe sales increased 30%, so you could reasonab
ly expect similar results this year
After the Promotion, your team analyzes the results and determines that sales ac
tually increased 35% this year! This is great to know, but don t let this informat
ion become knowledge in someone s head or let it sit in a Promotional review log.
If you do, next year, you will notice your inventory increasing, only to realize
someone forgot to make adjustments to the incremental sales for the Promotion l
ast year. Now, you ve unintentionally bought an increased amount of inventory for
a non-recurring Promotion!
Whether you mark the additional percentage increase in sales (35%) caused by the
promotion so that it is not part of your history, or adjust the unusual usage a
fter the promotion is over, most experts can agree, it is important to make sure
that you have a system (or software) in place that can handle Promotions.
As consumers, we love taking advantage of Promotions, but in the forecasting wor
ld, making sure you plan for your inventory correctly (before and after!) is jus
t as important as determining the terms of the Promotion itself.
- See more at: http://www.abc-computers.com/news-events/blog/planning-your-inven
tory-for-sales-promotions/#sthash.DuLb4Fxx.dpuf
Through online sales promotion, relationships are developed, channels of communi
cation are opened, and an exchange of information regarding a product's benefits
and a consumer's needs occurs.
The Internet allows sales representatives to reach exponentially more potential
buyers. Emails blasts can reach thousands of potential buyers at one time. Video
s posted on websites like YouTube have the potential to go viral. Through conten
t and inbound marketing, a sales representative is capable of offering specific,
expert, and personalized information to site visitors. Social media enables a c
ompany and its sales team to make contact with like-minded individuals and to co
nvert those who are unfamiliar with the product or service being sold.

Source: Boundless. Online Sales Promotion. Boundless Marketing. Boundless, 14 Nov.

2014. Retrieved 26 Jan. 2015 from https://www.boundless.com/marketing/textbooks
/boundless-marketing-textbook/personal-selling-sales-promotion-14/consumer-sales
-promotion-methods-96/online-sales-promotion-477-4143/
According to Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman, Alibaba One big worry is
logistics.
http://www.ixiacom.com/about-us/news-events/corporate-blog/technologist s-view-fli
pkart-website-fiasco- -lessons-learned
Here are a few pointers:
1. Product offering & volumes for deals didn t mash-up. Complimentary products wer
e not knitted well, there was zero up-selling.
2. Too many patches and new elements across the software creating a never been he
re before experience for regulars of Flipkart. There was too much of jargon and f
ar too many variables. It looked like that there was an attempt to accommodate a

ll whims and fancies of their investors, their investors investors and those of
their cousins, uncles and aunts. A few comfort zones which were left after this
onslaught were handed over to promoters, shareholders and employees to fool ar
ound with, which they did.
3. Oo, we don t believe in what we are doing, was the message Flipkart was going
all over India with. No cancellation, no refund policy destroyed faith and trust f
actor You buy, your luck, your fate, my money this noise was heard by almost al
l customers who were not buying for the first time on internet.
4. The whole user experience was pathetic, there were too many variables compet
ing for real-estate on each page. Flat discount, minimum discount, upto discount
and so many other terms competed against each other for eroding trust and confu
sing customer.
5. Market place model brings about its challenges, it is fully understandable. L
imitations to Cash-On-Delivery items really hit hard hundreds of thousands of us
ers who logged in with anticipation of good deals. There were no good deals on C
OD and that cultivated doubt & implanted suspicion about scam in the minds of bu
yers.
6. Pricing was not trustworthy. Fictitious brands, fictitious prices kind of fe
el was all over the website and in all departments, making one doubt credibility
of Flipkart. If one had already not given-up on that.
7. Flipkart underestimated financial muscle, product selection, logistics handli
ng and preparedness of its worthy competitors Amazon and Snapdeal. They both rea
ped huge dividend of Flipkart s failure and rickety execution.
8. Websites run on servers, not on pages of leading newspapers, looks like this
fact was not told to Flipkart or if they were aware they choose to ignore it. Th
ey were not prepared to handle the kind of traffic they bought with massive mark
eting campaign. It looked like that there were no calculations and/or projection
s done to estimate server load.
9. A banana leaf over your head can t save you from a hailstorm. Unprecedented tec
hnology issues ripped the site apart, there were bugs and erroneous integration
s at more lines of code than even a first time programmer would be allowed to ge
taway with.
10. Product Selection was not balanced, it didn t factor user choices and was too
confusing and unconvincing. There was a rush for a few brands where products we
re well established nut they didn t have adequate numbers to keep the excitement o
n.