Companies take the discount route to lure consumers

“Hurry up. Use any card to avail flat 25% discount.”

Sounds familiar? You must have got a number of similar such messages in the last 13 days.

Thanks to the ‘go cash-less’ drive, quick thinking marketing managers have jumped in to cash the opportunity to win over competition by offering lucrative offers.

Companies, including Flipkart, Amazon, Grofers and Pepperfry, are offering attractive discounts to win over consumers.

Furniture e-tailer Pepperfry has announced its ‘Cash me not’ sale’ with a 51% discount on all electronic payments. Amazon is offering 15% discount on sales through gift cards, while Uber is giving 25% cashback for payments made through mobile wallet Paytm.

Several others like Grofers, Cinepolis, Big Basket and Flipkart have also introduced discounts.

“With the announcement of demonetisation, sales were falling. Sales were down by almost 75%, combining the demonetisation impact with (usual) post-Diwali plunge in demand. Wedding season also failed to drive demand. But discounts and campaigns are helping in reviving sales,” said Kashyap Vadapalli, chief marketing officer, Pepperfry.

“We are running a few campaigns and are actively working with our banking and online wallet partners to educate our users. Over 80% of our restaurants were already accepting online payments and our teams have been working closely with the remaining 20% restaurant partners to enable online payments,” said the spokesperson at Zomato, an online food ordering platform. “Over the last fortnight, 100% orders on Zomato have been paid online and our order volumes have increased significantly.”

The Mexican chain of movie theatres, Cinepolis, is offering 20% discount on tickets booked online through its website. “The ongoing demonetisation is restricted to currency notes in circulation; the online booking will be a feasible option. Booking tickets online will prove to be a win-win for our patrons,” said Devang Sampat, director, India strategic initiatives, Cinépolis India.