NEW DELHI: Months ahead of the festive season, e-commerce majors Flipkart and Amazon have announced sale, wooing customers with deals and big discounts. The two players are locked in an intense battle for leadership in the burgeoning e-commerce market in the country.

While Amazon will kick off its ‘Great India Sale’ from May 11 till 14, Flipkart will hold its ‘Big 10’ sale between May 14 and 18.

Flipkart’s ‘Big 10’ sale is different from its flagship ‘The Big Billion Days’ sale and is being held to mark the 10-year anniversary of the online marketplace. “The Big 10 sale is our biggest by far after Big Billion Days… customers can expect the same scale and service as they do during our flagship Big Billion Days,” Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said in a statement. The sales will see the players offering deals on products across categories like fashion, smartphones, electronics, smart televisions and home decor. In April, Flipkart received a funding of USD 1.4 billion from eBay, Microsoft, and Tencent, while Amazon has also pledged investments worth USD 5 billion into the Indian market. Both companies are aggressively investing into the Indian market, expanding their infrastructure and platform to bring more sellers and shoppers on board. According to a Google-AT Kearney report, the number of online shoppers in India is estimated to grow 3.5 times to touch 175 million by 2020, from 50 million in 2015. Also, e-tailing is expected to drive 25 per cent of the total organised retail sales of USD 240 billion in India by 2020, as per the report.—PTI