giant amazon in june 2013 the company launched its india business with just two categories books and movies but today it is the firms fastest growing business globally and has mopped up a 2 billion investment from the hq and is greedy for more like his peers agarwal closely watched amazons great indian festive sale unfold and was amazed by consumer response this has been one of amazons greatest sales events he gushes there has been unprecedented demand from consumers and our sellers have seen an eight to 10fold jump in their daily sales amazon has lined up one million items for what it calls nextday delivery by 1100 am for a fee and he claims most orders are dispatched in six hours from its warehouses we get around 60 per cent of our orders from tier ii and tier iii citiesthis time we have got 30 per cent from even tier iii and iv towns most categories have had their biggest day ever he adds we have been preparing for this since the time our last diwali sale ended but given that we did our best business in the freedom sale barely two months ago this sharp increase is even more remarkable even as ecommerce executives bask in these seemingly bright set of numbers they feel this years festival sales could mark a new beginning for the industry rather than a zealous focus on discounts companies could spend more money and time on the lastmile logistics and delivery and the breadth of their product basket to cater to the massive customer demand we have opened new fulfilment centres taking the count to 21 across the country to guarantee efficient delivery says flipkarts mukesh bansal we have also ramped up the delivery staff strength to 19000 vigilant strides for flipkart building a robust technology and logistics backend will be particularly important the bengalurubased companys sale last year was brought to its knees by a poor backbone leading to founders sachin and binny bansal issuing an unprecedented apology to customers this time the company is in no mood for any repeats as more sellers have crowded to flipkart it started the year with 30000 and now has 50000 the company has redoubled its efforts to keep its customers happy according to arvind singhal chairman and managing director of technopak advisors a retail advisory company the challenge for ecommerce companies may be being heard in an increasingly loud din of sales and promotions ecommerce companies today bombard consumers with offers sales and promotions he says consumers now realise they dont need to rush for a specific promotion since another one is around the corner as consumers have become inured to frequent sales and deep discounts ecommerce companies have had to work harder to get their attention ecommerce companies need to move away from a habit of incessant highdecibel promotions to building deeper customer engagement he adds industry observers suggest that ecommerce companies need to build compelling reasons for consumers to visit