Hits & Misses of Of GOSF 2014

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Hits & Misses of Of GOSF 2014
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After some teething problems like the not-so-exciting deals in the first year and the site crashing for a day in 2013, the Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF) finally had a great time sailing this year. To mark the beginning of GOSF this year, Google and its partners started pre-party celebrations (from Dec 9) and launched contests, games and surprise gifts. This, obviously, was Google’s well-thought and well-timed strategy to build ample anticipation around India’s biggest shopping gala. With a patronage of more than 450 partners, GOSF 2014 had set the stage for a never-seen-before shopping frenzy. However, all was not rosy during these ‘72 hours of crazy’ shopping. Like all things colossal, this extravaganza, too, was marred with some snags.

Mehul Jobanputra, CEO and co-founder of DesiDime.com, India’s largest online shopping community, shares a few hits and misses of GOSF 2014.

HIT: No Speed-breakers Ahead
Of all Internet errors, the ‘500 internal server error’ is the most annoying and most common. But, despite experiencing more than twice their usual traffic, most GOSF partner websites successfully run during the sale without going offline even for a minute. This year, both Google and the merchant sites were well-prepared to stand steady under the sheer weight of massive numbers, thus giving shoppers a bump-free ride.

HIT: The Rs 299 Corner

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This unassuming offer won the highest number of fans for GOSF 2014. Be it fashion apparels, shoes, watches, soft toys, sunglasses, cookware, home décor items, kitchen appliances, almost everything was up for grabs at this small sum. However, the modesty of price did not translate to humble goods. The products on offer in this section were vast in quality, quantity as well as range. Coming from known brands and trustworthy merchants, goods from this corner were seized in big numbers, far and wide.

HIT: The Great Social Media Buzz
Google made optimal use of the micro-blogging site Twitter during the run-up to GOSF 2014 as well as during the main event. It encouraged word-of-mouth publicity with various Twitter contests, which eventually led to shoppers sharing their experiences and discussing deals of GOSF 2014. #72HoursOfCrazy and #GOSFWithSnapdeal were the most trending GOSF related hashtags on day 1, while the former had become the 5th most trending topic worldwide on day 3.

HIT: Small Merchants, Big Show
The rule of the jungle did not apply here. Relatively smaller and lesser known merchants put up an equally strong show against the much familiar giants. Paytm, Limeroad, Zovi, Yepme, Justeat, Foodpanda and Trendin were some of the underlings who turned out to be the dark horses in this Derby of discounts. While Paytm won the day with its fat cashback offers, Limeroad took the cake away with its Buy One Get One offer across all categories. In short, customers got a wider variety to choose from this GOSF.

HIT: Online Real Estate Arrives
Who would have thought that the erstwhile apprehensive Indian buyer, who found it hard to trust the virtual space even with its most trivial shopping requirements, could be lured in to investing in real estate online? According to reports, Tata Housing received around 10,000 bookings and a Bangalore-based real estate developer, Purvankara booked 125 homes on the first day itself. The numbers were beyond the wildest dreams of both GOSF as well as of the realty partners. GOSF 2014 certainly succeeded in asserting the online presence of the Indian real estate category.
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MISS: No Flipkart

India’s big shopping festival felt so incomplete without Flipkart. The latter’s loyalists would have surely missed its absence sorely, thereby dampening their enthusiasm for GOSF 2014. True that Flipkart launched its own Big App Shopping Days for them, but it did miss out on the greater bulk of customers, who still prefer making online purchases on desktops and laptops. This one was a miss for GOSF, Flipkart and the consumers, alike.

MISS: Mobile phone deals, less than wow
Although statistics indicate that mobile phones and tablets were the most popular products in GOSF 2014, the discounts on these were less exciting than expected. The ones that were truly mind-blowing lasted for about a few hours, and in some cases, only a few minutes. Some of the craziest deals on mobile phones were: iPhone 6 at Rs 26,750 on Shopclues, Micromax Canvas A1 at Rs 5,999 on Amazon India and some lesser-known mobile phones at Rs 299 on Shopclues.

MISS: Weekend Shoppers
Like every year, GOSF arrived on a Wednesday this year, too. Although it lasted for a good three days, it was over before the weekend began. While this is obviously because the online shopping arena witnesses a surge in traffic during weekdays, Google misses out on the weekend shoppers every year.
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(About the author: The article has been submitted by desidime.com)

(Image courtesy:www.offoindia.com)