Amazon.com Inc. and rival Walmart Inc. reported record revenue for their six-day India sales festivals as e-commerce catches on with buyers and sellers in smaller Indian towns, moving beyond the country’s urban, English-speaking population.

The American competitors have been dueling in India since Walmart cut a $16 billion deal for control of local pioneer Flipkart Online Services Pvt last year.

E-commerce major Amazon and its arch rival, Walmart-owned Flipkart, have independently claimed that their sales for this season — Great India Festival and The Big Billion Days, respectively — were the highest-ever in India’s e-commerce history.

Flipkart on Friday said it had clocked 70 billion views in six days of The Big Billion Days (TBBDs). It also said there was almost 50% growth in the number of new customers, as compared to last year.

The country’s two premier e-commerce firms claimed top spot with their own set of numbers in mega festival season sales.

Even as the six-day flagship festive sale is coming to an end Friday midnight, Amazon and Flipkart said more than half their growth during this period came from new customers, especially those in smaller cities and towns.

Indian homes are steadily warming up to smart speakers. Walk into any modern household in a metro city and chances are you will get to hear the residents issuing voice commands such as “Alexa, play top Hindi songs,” “Alexa, turn on the lights,” or “Alexa, Wake me up at 6 am”. Thanks to Amazon’s Alexa-powered smart speakers, the Jeff Bezos-owned firm now has quite a formidable Echo family of devices—Echo Input, Echo Dot, Echo, Echo Spot, Echo Plus, and Echo Show.

Tier-II and tier-III cities are driving big business for e-commerce firms — Flipkart and Amazon — for the ongoing festival season.

Walmart-owned Flipkart on Monday night said tier-II and tier-III cities ushered in the festive cheer for the firm during the second day of its flagship event ‘The Big Billion Days’ 2019.

Dispelling the fear that a slowing economy may affect consumer behaviour, e-commerce majors Flipkart and Amazon India have said they witnessed record transactions on their platforms on the first day of their annual festive sale, which started early on Sunday.

Amazon is all set to roll its most anticipated annual sale — Great Indian Festival Sale 2019. The e-commerce platform will start Great Indian Festival Sale on September 29. Amazon Prime members will have an early access to the sale from today. More than 2,500 mobile phones and accessories are lined up for six-day mega sale which will end on October 4.

Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said the company’s public policy team is working on proposed regulations around facial recognition, a fledgling technology that has drawn criticism of the technology giant’s cloud computing unit.

“Our public policy team is actually working on facial recognition regulations, and it makes a lot of sense to regulate that,” Bezos told reporters at the company’s annual Alexa devices launch in Seattle on Wednesday.

E-commerce giant Amazon and Flipkart have created over 1.4 lakh temporary jobs across supply chain, last-mile connectivity and customer support in preparation for their festive sales that kicks off later this month.

Amazon.in, in a statement on Tuesday, said it has created more than 90,000 seasonal employment opportunities across its fulfilment centres, sortation centres, delivery stations, partner fulfilment network and customer service sites.

Ever since Amazon.com Inc. bought Whole Foods in 2017 for $13.7 billion, shoppers and investors alike have wondered how the e-commerce giant would integrate the upscale grocer into its sprawling online operation. Now, after two years of tinkering, Amazon is betting big on quick delivery from Whole Foods.

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