Food, Song, Wellness Sessions: Mega Sale War Games At Amazon, Flipkart HQs

The online platforms of e-commerce firms Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho and Myntra are set to explode soon as the clock strikes midnight on September 23. Millions of shoppers are expected to go online to grab the special deals offered by these firms as they host their biggest festive sale events this weekend without Covid restrictions for the first time in almost three years. This is also the first time that the employees at various e-commerce firms are back in the office or are working in a hybrid mode to collaborate and pull off these events.

At Amazon India’s headquarters in the World Trade Centre in Bengaluru, the atmosphere in the ‘war room’ is electric as the employees of the American e-commerce firm get ready to start the ‘Great Indian Festival’ (GIF). War rooms are equipped with gourmet food, snacks, energy drinks, tea, coffee and bean bags to support employees while they brainstorm and collaborate. One can also find a truck decorated with fairy lights at the office. It is actually a photo booth set up by the firm as one of the initiatives to keep the employees entertained. There are also hanging danglers everywhere. Amazon has been preparing for the sale event for the last 10 months.

“The India leadership team including Manish Tiwary, vice president and country manager for consumer business, are all housed here and closely tracking the preparations and boosting the morale of the employees,” said a source inside the company.

Tens and thousands of associates and partners across Amazon’s fulfilment centres, sortation centers, and delivery stations in the country are preparing for the GIF. Amazon India has over 60 fulfilment centers, sortation centers across 19 states, and over 1850 Amazon-owned and partner stations that are gearing up for the festive season, along with 28,000 ‘I Have Space’ partners and thousands of Amazon Flex delivery partners. The teams at fulfilment centres have access to customised T-shirts, music played on Amazon Radio and food available in the cafeteria. Also, for employees pan India, Amazon has set up weekly contests and quizzes, along with fun engagements.

Some 30 km away from Amazon's main office in Bengaluru, at the headquarters of Walmart-owned Flipkart on the Outer Ring Road, a music band was invited to cheer the employees as they gear up to pull off ‘The Big Billion Days’ (TBBD) festive sale. One could also hear the special anthem created for this year’s TBBD to raise employee morale. The pantries are fully stocked and kiosks with food from around the world keep the staff energised. Many cots have been procured for the Bengaluru campus for employees to rest. They can also be seen wearing customised TBBD t-shirts.

Employees at Flipkart's headquarters in Bengaluru sport traditional attire as hey prepare for the upcoming festive season and the The Big Billion Days

Employees are collaborating to brainstorm and solve any last-minute glitches. They would be viewing dashboards to get real-time insights on business performance. The aim is to monitor the progress and quickly resolve the issues. For this, they are being allotted war rooms.

“Top Flipkart executives, including CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy, are here to boost the morale of the employees, monitor the progress closely and make strategies,” said a source inside the company.

According to the sources, Flipkart has been preparing for almost 12 months for this year’s TBBD. Thousands of employees across the corporate office along with lakhs of its supply chain employees and partners worked together to bring the TBBD event of this year. Krishnamurthy has added 50,000 additional seasonal workers to the supply chain.

To support its corporate office employees during the festive event, Flipkart is conducting wellness sessions multiple times a day. There are music sessions, game shows, and stand-up comedy events for fun and engagement along with tete-a-tete sessions with Flipkart’s leadership.

E-commerce retailers led by Amazon and Flipkart are expected to garner sales worth $11.8 billion this festive season, comfortably more than double the pre-pandemic figure of $5 billion in 2019, according to a report by consulting firm Redseer. This year’s numbers are projected to increase by 28 per cent from 2021, which saw festive season sales of about $9.2 billion.

The e-commerce firms are also bringing in various technology interventions that would help them to handle the scale of business this festive season or enhance customer experience.

Flipkart is introducing a host of new features through design changes on its app to serve different sets of customers that explore e-commerce this festive season. The completely revamped experience is focused on visual design, ease of navigation, easy discoverability of deals and products, and an immersive and interactive experience with live commerce.

SoftBank-backed internet commerce firm Meesho’s compressed app size of 13.6MB, is able to cater to new consumers, with a majority of users coming from tier 2 cities and beyond. The company’s focus on both customers and sellers in tier 2+ markets makes it crucial for the app to function on low-specification devices.

Amazon has also launched ‘AmazonMetaworld’ a metaverse of digital experiences in various cities. Customers as well as Amazon employees can walk into physical experience centres where they create their virtual avatars, put on a VR headset, compete with others, collect points, win goodies and meet social media influencers.

What's happening in the war rooms

Amazon:

War rooms equipped with gourmet food, snacks, energy drinks, tea/coffee and bean bags

'AmazonMetaworld’ -- a metaverse of digital experiences for employees and customers

Office pick-up and drop service

Teams at fulfilment centres with customised T-shirts

Music played on Amazon Radio

Flipkart:

Cots procured for Bengaluru campus for employees to rest

Fully-stocked pantry; kiosks with food from around the world

Wellness sessions multiple times a day

Music sessions, game shows, stand-up comedy events for employees

Employees sporting TBBD T-shirts