Brands are ensuring that they have a strategy for such sale events to ensure they do not impact brick-and-mortar sales like earlier days. The brands are passing on their savings on distribution costs directly to consumers during online sales. Some brands have also entered into pricing and discounting agreement with the marketplaces for products that are also sold in offline retail, so that there is no predatory discounting on them.

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Ecommerce Sales Give Discounts On Selected
Products,Saving Offline Retailers
The modus operandi of big online sale shift towards online exclusive products or brands.
Amazon India's ongoing sale offers deals mostly on such products, and Flipkart's upcoming sale
will not be much different, industry insiders said.
#DigitalErra Thought Corner
Brands are ensuring that they have a strategy for such sale events to ensure they do not impact
brick-and-mortar sales like earlier days.
The brands are passing on their savings on distribution costs directly to consumers during online
sales. Some brands have also entered into pricing and discounting agreement with the
marketplaces for products that are also sold in offline retail, so that there is no predatory
discounting on them.
Exclusive Partnerships to Offer Discounts
Amazon started its 'Great Indian Sale' on Thursday. It will continue till Sunday. The same day
rival Flipkart will start its 'Big 10' sale that will continue till May 18.
Unlike previous sales, this time around the focus of e-commerce companies would be on targeted
categories. Brands are partnering with e-tailers, launching exclusive models and offering them a
pricing flexibility during these events.

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At Amazon, there are deals on the Samsung Galaxy On series and C7 Pro smartphones which are
exclusive, and even the bank cash back offer is limited to these products. Other discounts on
smartphone models are on brands like OnePlus, Coolpad, Motorola, Honor, Asus and Xiaomi,
which are either online focused or exclusive.
In televisions, most major deals are on online brands like BPL, Sanyo, Kodak, InFocus, Vu and
Onida. Amazon has entered into a direct deal with LG for air-conditioners.
Even in fashion, the deals are on online exclusive portfolio or last season merchandise.
Industry executives said brands have entered into similar agreement with Flipkart as well.
According to ET, a Flipkart spokesperson, however, said the deals in its upcoming sale will pan
across the entire portfolio and will not be limited to online exclusives.
"The brands/products that are not exclusive also have unmatched deals and convenience features
such as no-cost EMI, product exchange, and assured buy back guarantee," the spokesperson said.

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Source: ET
Mellowing Down on Discounts
More often, the burden of discounts is borne through funding received from venture capitalists
and private equity investors — a point raised by traditional retailers that led to the commerce
ministry disallowing online marketplaces from offering price reductions on goods listed on their
platforms.
“The regulation says that marketplaces cannot fund the discounts. What the companies do is they
reduce the commission they take from sellers in case of discount sales. That’s how they play a
role in pricing. The platforms also ask sellers to offer discounts, and compel them later to
undertake marketing expenses, delivery charges,” said Satish Meena, senior forecast analyst,
Forrester Research.
“Overall, discounting is going down because of lack of funds and saturation in the market. It
cannot be similar to 2014 and 2015 because platforms don’t have that kind of money now. Sales
now will be targeted and logical, because now there are only two big players. Firms will focus on
retaining the customers rather than having to re-acquire them over and again,” Meena concurred.
Considering that e-commerce volumes are only a part of the total retail pie, experts pegged that
discounting strategies are expected to be in the front seat, going ahead, to drive sales. However,
discounting may have mellowed down compared with the past, giving a level playing field for
offline retailers to business.