INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Here's a limited chronicle of the things I missed: flash mobs rocking to India's new dance-floor favorite, a remix of Tu Jab Lagawe Lu
Endless all-night supply of beloved street foods including my favorites, samosas and kachoris
Zumba dance-offs.It wasn't really a party though; it was a war
This was Amazon and Flipkart pumping up thousands of workers
They're mostly twenty-something Indians toiling in offices, warehouses and delivery stations across the subcontinent, as the two companies
fought for top honor during their big annual sales events
Walmart's just completed its deal for control of Flipkart, making it the very first time first time the Seattle behemoth is facing off
against the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant - on the other side of the globe.The importance of the clash between the two just ahead
of the biggest shopping seasons of Dussehra and Diwali is hard to overestimate
Think India versus Pakistan in cricket
At their offices, ambulances were on standby in case a worker keeled over from the stress.Flipkart demonstrated that it has lost none of its
It signed up no less than 47 of the biggest celebrities - cricket and Bollywood stars of the likes of Virat Kohli and Amitabh Bachchan - to
tout their sales campaign in TV commercials, newspaper ads and on billboards
Well in advance, it sucked in every single luminary that Amazon could even have gone for
Amazon, meanwhile, played its trump card: for millions of Indians who are members of its Prime loyalty program, it gave 12 hours of early
access on the same day that Flipkart's sale opened
Nowhere was the fight more intense than in the smartphone category where both retailers vied with each other for launch exclusives and to
hand out the biggest discounts and cashbacks.Even before the sales ended, the I-win-you-lose messages started pouring in
Flipkart said it "smashed all records" during the Big Billions Days and said its opening day alone was the "single biggest sales day in the
history of Indian retail." Amazon's India chief Amit Agarwal declared in a video that he was confident of fulfilling the aspirations of the
"largest customer base of a single company ever in the history of India."Who won It's hard to tell
Both rivals aren't disclosing sales numbers or any other metrics
That leads me to believe we'll see more splashy galas until there's a clear winner
May the best one win.Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author
The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of TheIndianSubcontinent and TheIndianSubcontinent does not assume
any responsibility or liability for the same.
