The #BigBillionDay that wasn’t

Updated - October 09, 2014 at 05:59 PM.

Flipkart’s dream sale turned into a nightmare, more so for the company itself

Failed to click Flipkart’s biggest sale, with discounts in 70 categories and a dedicated field staff of 10,000 to process orders, did not get it right. V SUDERSHAN

Flipkart has apologised for the debacle that its #BigBillion Day (October 6, 2014) sale turned out to be.

Initially, it tried to put on a brave face by declaring that it sold stuff worth $100 million within 10 hours.

The experiment cost it much more in terms of brand equity.

Rivals ambushed its big day in advertising and online, according to some media reports, and customers were put off by lack of stocks and technical glitches. Frustrated users took to Twitter to vent, and among other comments about branding and pricing, several unflattering comparisons were drawn with IRCTC, Indian Railways’ ticketing website. Some tweets:

Rohit Gattani @rohitgattani: Flipkart is true flag bearer of digital age companies. It has gone from 1to 0from #flipkart to flopkart

Prashant Bhatt @impbhatt Pls, don't troll flipkart. They were just cleaning their store room as a contribution in Clean India

Akash Banerjee @akashbanerjee: #Flipkart clearly set a record today. That of killing the maximum possible goodwill in the minimum possible time.

Premier League @TPremierLeague: IRCTC is laughing at Flipkart

Anderson Q Gomes @andy061182 Guys, just saved Rs.40000 on #flipkart today....

As all the items I wanted to buy were out of stock.

Jigar_Da_Tukda @Crazy_casanova: Breaking News: Even Rajnikant was unable to buy anything today from #flipkart

Rahul Nanda @rahulnanda86: Log onto http://www.bigbillionday.com and see what site you get redirected to. @Flipkart you just got seriously trolled #flipkart #FlipkartSale

iChill @BLRrocKS: On the occasion of Bakrid, our @Flipkart is making Indians look like Bakras! #flipkart - could you not have selected a better day? LOL

Akkshay Thakur @StylixAkkshay: Since Flipkart's servers are crashing, final price of products will be calculated by Duckworth/Lewis. #BigBillionDay

#CheckSnapdealToday

Shubhankar Rai @bkd_exe: The Cart Has Been Flipped ! #CheckSnapdealToday

Nigel Britto @NigelBritto: Bought 2 books today. Not Flipkart, not Amazon, just from a bookstore, the good old way. No discount. No false hopes. Didn't get cheated. :)

Published on October 9, 2014 12:29