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Context is everything.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
A combination of pent-up demand and rock-bottom prices may have served to boost demand initially but the second and third wave of sales were not as strong.
Editor's note: The festive season is over. And so are the October-November sales. So no more full-page ads in your daily paper, listing out a whole array of products at rock-bottom prices. That phone you’ve been eyeing or those noise-cancelling headphones—all at prices a little less daunting. Year after year, this sale season plays out with claims and counterclaims flying thick and fast about the number of customers, sellers and shipments, and ever more dizzying sales figures. This year too, Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon’s Indian arm continued to duke it out in what was virtually a two-horse race online. That apart, by all accounts, the Diwali sales were very different this time. While the first wave or week of sales comfortably broke records, aided by demand tailwinds, as we noted earlier, those died down just as quickly. As we wrote last year, typically just over half of the month-long Diwali sales is accounted for by the first wave, with the rest split equally between the next two. This year, the first wave contributed as much as 60% of sales. What it means …
The relatively new online marketplace seems to be doubling on its UAE momentum. We take a look at what is at stake.
Who’s going to lead the IPO party, what’s going to drive the market, where are some of the leading businesses headed, and more.
The ecommerce platform will be hard-pressed to justify its estimated $7-8 billion valuation—up nearly 2x from just 10 months ago—at a time of ho-hum growth and flagging profitability.
