Amazon Great Indian Festival 2024: AI-Powered Shopping Experience and Exclusive Deals

Amazon Great Indian Festival 2024: AI to power Amazon's biggest sale, company explains how | Exclusive

The Amazon Great Indian Festival 2024 is set to kick off on September 27, and this year, Amazon is harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to offer customers an enhanced shopping experience, seemingly like never before. In an exclusive interview with financialexpress.com, Saurabh Srivastava, VP - Categories, Amazon India, shared insights into how AI-driven innovations are taking centre stage during the company's most significant festive sale event. According to Srivastava, AI is playing a pivotal role in simplifying decision-making for shoppers. Edited excerpts. When does the Amazon Great Indian Festival start and how can customers benefit from the Amazon Great Indian Festival 2024? The Amazon Great Indian Festival 2024 starts on September 27, with a 24-hour early access for Prime members. Customers can expect amazing deals, blockbuster entertainment, and exciting new product launches across multiple categories such as smartphones, fashion, beauty, large appliances, and more. Additionally, Amazon is offering a 10 percent instant discount with SBI Debit and Credit Cards and Credit EMI, as well as No-cost EMI options on various purchases. Prime members will also be able to enjoy 5 percent unlimited cashback on shopping with the Amazon Pay ICICI credit card. With festive season around the corner, how is Amazon ensuring a seamless shopping experience for customers across all pin codes? What innovative features or services can we expect this year? To ensure a seamless shopping experience across all pin codes, we have added three new fulfilment centres to our existing pan-India operations network that consists of over 43 million cubic feet of storage space, sortation centres in 19 states, about 2,000 delivery stations, Amazon Air, our partnerships with Indian Railways, India Post, and much more. We've also created more than 110,000 seasonal job opportunities across our operations network to meet the increased customer demand during the upcoming festive season. These opportunities include direct and indirect jobs across India in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, and Chennai, among others. This year, we've introduced AI-generated review highlights, which summarise customer reviews to help users make faster, informed decisions. We've also launched Rufus, a conversational shopping assistant powered by Generative AI. Rufus enables natural language interactions within the Amazon app, making it easy to ask product-related questions, get recommendations, or compare products. Whether typing or speaking, customers can now enjoy a more intuitive shopping experience, further enhanced by AI-powered tools like personalised recommendations and Alexa for seamless shopping assistance. Can you tell us about Amazon's efforts to empower small and medium businesses in India? At Amazon, we are invested in supporting businesses of all sizes, from small and medium businesses to emerging entrepreneurs to established brands. With 1.6 million seller partners, Amazon offers various initiatives to help SMBs grow through e-commerce. Our recent efforts include reducing selling fees across multiple categories on Amazon.in, allowing sellers to expand their product offerings and prepare for the upcoming festive season. With the changes, sellers on Amazon India will benefit from a drop in selling fees ranging from 3 percent to 12 percent across various product categories. Additionally, programs such as Karigar, Saheli, Launchpad, and Local Shops focus on SMB digitisation, helping businesses increase visibility and connect with customers across India. What are some of the customer trends you expect to see this year and how are you gearing up for the same? We are observing several key trends shaping the online shopping landscape this year. One major trend is the influence of Gen Z shoppers. They're not just purchasing products -- they're setting trends, particularly around sustainability, personalisation, and brands that align with their values. In response, we're rethinking how we present products and brands to cater to this influential group. Another notable trend is premiumisation. Categories like jewellery, premium smartwatches, and apparel are seeing unprecedented demand, especially during festivals and wedding season. To gear up for these trends, we've launched new initiatives, including varied Amazon Prime membership tiers to cater to different customer needs. We've also increased our focus on faster delivery. Today, we offer same-day delivery of close to 1M+ products and 1-day delivery across 4M+ products, free with no minimum cart value. Additionally, we've rolled out Creator University and Creator Connect, providing a platform for Gen Z and Alpha creators to engage, learn, and thrive in the evolving creator economy. What were some of the milestones from festive period last year and do you see yourself surpassing those numbers this year? In 2023, we witnessed a record of more than 1.1 billion visits with 4 million+ new customers shopping on Amazon India for the first time. The biggest ever in history. Further, 80 percent of our customers who shopped came from tier 2-3 cities reiterating our strong capabilities of delivering across all serviceable pin codes in India. We also saw the highest-ever Prime sign-ups in a single day this season along with the highest seller participation along with 5,000 new launches from top brands. Almost half of all orders from Prime members were delivered within 48 hours of making a transaction during Amazon Great Indian Festival 2023. We are hoping for this to be the biggest Great Indian Festival ever. The festive season is important for the Indian diaspora overseas. How is Amazon enabling Indian sellers to reach this global audience and cater to their festive needs? During the festive season, Amazon actively supports Indian sellers to reach global customers. With Amazon Global Selling, we aim to help thousands of Indian businesses reach over $13 billion in total e-commerce exports by 2024. Since its inception, more than 150,000 exporters have participated in the initiative, cumulatively selling more than 40 crore 'Made in India' items on over 18 Amazon international platforms. The program has remarkable adoption with sellers participating from over 200 cities in India. During the festive season, we work closely with Indian exporters to pinpoint international holiday shopping trends, simplify shipping processes, and promote their products effectively. There is a strong demand for traditional Indian clothing, trendy jewellery, scented incense, decorative oil lamps, and other celebration-related products among the Indian community living abroad.

Amazon Great Indian Festival 2024: 4 ways you can save extra this year - Times of India

Amazon has announced that the Great Indian Festival sale begins on September 27, 2024 for all users and September 26, 2024 for Prime members. The sale, touted to be the e-commerce platform's biggest sale of the year, is expected to offer big discounts on a range of products across categories. As teased by Amazon, the sale will offer up to 45% off on laptops, up to 65% off on smart TVs and projectors, and up to 60% off on travel bookings among other offers. In addition to the discounts offered on different product categories, Amazon Great Indian Festival sale 2024 will offer additional discounts on select purchases and payment gateways.Here's a look at how you can save extra in the upcoming Amazon sale 10% instant discount on SBI Bank cards Similar to the past year, Amazon will offer a 10% instant discount on purchases made using SBI bank cards. This includes both credit and debit cards. Additional off on Amazon Pay UPI As teased on Amazon app and website, buyers can save extra on making payments through Amazon Pay UPI during the Great Indian Festival sale 2024. Buyers will get a cashback of flat Rs 1,000 on minimum order of Rs 1,000 paid using Amazon Pay UPI. Amazon Pay rewards The sale also offers Amazon Pay rewards as another tool to get extra discounts. Users will get rewards on purchases made during the sale. These rewards can be collected and redeemed to get discount coupons on categories like Home & Kitchen, Fashion, Beauty and more. Save up to 10% on Amazon Pay gift cards The sale will offer up to 10% discount on the purchase of Amazon Pay gift cards. For example, on purchase of a Rs 2,500 Amazon Pay gift card, buyers will get a cashback of Rs 75. The TOI Tech Desk is a dedicated team of journalists committed to delivering the latest and most relevant news from the world of technology to readers of The Times of India. TOI Tech Desk's news coverage spans a wide spectrum across gadget launches, gadget reviews, trends, in-depth analysis, exclusive reports and breaking stories that impact technology and the digital universe. Be it how-tos or the latest happenings in AI, cybersecurity, personal gadgets, platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and more; TOI Tech Desk brings the news with accuracy and authenticity.

Amazon's Great Indian Festival sale 2024 begins on September 27: HP, Samsung, OnePlus, realme, IQOO to take part

HP, Samsung, OnePlus, realme, and IQOO are just some of the tech and gadget companies set to take part in Amazon's Great Indian Festival sale that begins this year on Friday, September 27. Prime members will get access 24 hours earlier. Amazon has promised that bestselling mobile phones will start at a price of ₹5,999 while mobile accessories will start at ₹89. Meanwhile, electronics and accessories are set to start at ₹199. Headphones will begin at ₹699 and smartwatches will begin from ₹799. Flipkart's Big Billion Days sale to begin on September 27 There are flexible payment plans as well as deals on large home appliances such as air conditioners. Customers can shop in eight languages: English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bangla, and Marathi. They can also get a 10% instant discount with SBI Debit and Credit Cards and Credit EMI While more deals and discounts will be revealed closer to the actual day of the sale, some featured items that will see slashed prices include Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 5G AI Smartphone (Cream, 12GB, 256GB Storage), Dell [Smartchoice] G15-5530 Gaming Laptop, and AI-enhanced HP Pavilion 16. Apart from Amazon, Flipkart's Big Billion Days sale will also take place on September 27, so users will have a number of deals and discounts to check out on rival platforms. Amazon mandates five days a week in office starting next year "The Amazon Great Indian Festival 2024 promises to offer customers a wide selection, brand new product launches, great deals, convenient shopping experience, fast and reliable deliveries, easy & flexible payment options and much more. We are excited to enhance the festive spirit with our sellers, brand partners, delivery associates, and together we will spread the excitement of festive preparation for millions of households across India. We anticipate a promising festive season and invite customers to join us in our celebration of TaiyaariKaTyohaar!" said Vice President - Categories, Amazon India, Saurabh Srivastava, in a blog post. Published - September 18, 2024 12:18 pm IST Read Comments