http://smartinvestor.business-standard.com/mf/mfNewsFeature-mfnews-271252-Flipkarts_Big_Billion_Day_under_ED_scanner.htm#.VMX9bf6UeSoOnline sale promotion stategies should be designed in such a way they are well within the limits of the existing regulatory framework for online businesses.Legal provisions pertaining to foreign exchange management act (FEMA), national taxation laws, cyber law due diligence (PDF), cyber security due diligence, e-commerce due diligence, have to be taken into consideration while crafting the promotional content. There are several cases where the, enforcement directorate (ED) has initiated investigation against big e-commerce players like Myntra, Flipkart and other e-commerce websites operating in India.Following the Big Billion Day, allegations were After the Big Billion Day sale, many consumers were left disgruntled because of poor consumer experience and inflated prices. The popular response to the sale also left competitors bitter with the traditional traders lobby complaining to the department of industrial policy and promotion, seeking policy intervention.The Competition Commission of India has initiated a preliminary enquiry into the matter, but there are indications that there may not be a case of predatory pricing against Flipkart.http://smartinvestor.business-standard.com/mf/mfNewsFeature-mfnews-271252-Flipkarts_Big_Billion_Day_under_ED_scanner.htm#.VMX9bf6UeSoChannels : Some insights from the front lines of determining ad channels-1. For multi-channel attribution modeling to work, all the marketing campaigns (Search, Social, Email, Display, Affiliate, others) must be 100% tagged with campaign tracking parameters . Tag the Bing campaigns. Tag the Email campaigns. Tag the Social campaigns. 2. One of the exercises is to do the above analysis based on Cost Per Acquisition, rather than just conversions. One may get a lot of conversions, but the CPA can get more complex. One needs to upload cost data into GA for my Social, Referral, Organic Search (yes, it costs money), and Email campaigns. 3. There is no need to do attribution analysis for all your conversions in aggregate. One can do attribution modeling uniquely and optimize the marketing efforts just for an ecommerce transaction. Or one can do it for email subscription signups, or downloads, or videos played or anything else one considers to be important.Inventory planningShoppers love them and look forward to the next one. They include % off deals, BOGOs, and Free Shipping when purchasing over a certain dollar amount. Organizations search for the perfect Promotion that will increase sales, gross margin dollars, and customer loyalty, while enhancing their brand.For the Inventory Management team, preparing for the Promotion and analyzing results afterwards are just as important as developing the Promotion itself.Promotion planning requires purchasing extra inventory to cover the forecasted spike in sales. Planners are charged with estimating the increase in sales and purchasing additional inventory to accommodate it. For example, when you offered 20% off all shoes last year, your shoe sales increased 30%, so you could reasonably expect similar results this yearAfter the Promotion, your team analyzes the results and determines that sales actually increased 35% this year! This is great to know, but dont let this information become knowledge in someones head or let it sit in a Promotional review log. If you do, next year, you will notice your inventory increasing, only to realize someone forgot to make adjustments to the incremental sales for the Promotion last year. Now, youve unintentionally bought an increased amount of inventory for a non-recurring Promotion!Whether you mark the additional percentage increase in sales (35%) caused by the promotion so that it is not part of your history, or adjust the unusual usage after the promotion is over, most experts can agree, it is important to make sure that you have a system (or software) in place that can handle Promotions.As consumers, we love taking advantage of Promotions, but in the forecasting world, making sure you plan for your inventory correctly (before and after!) is just as important as determining the terms of the Promotion itself.- See more at: http://www.abc-computers.com/news-events/blog/planning-your-inventory-for-sales-promotions/#sthash.DuLb4Fxx.dpufThrough online sales promotion, relationships are developed, channels of communication are opened, and an exchange of information regarding a product's benefits and a consumer's needs occurs.The Internet allows sales representatives to reach exponentially more potential buyers. Emails blasts can reach thousands of potential buyers at one time. Videos posted on websites like YouTube have the potential to go viral. Through content and inbound marketing, a sales representative is capable of offering specific, expert, and personalized information to site visitors. Social media enables a company and its sales team to make contact with like-minded individuals and to convert those who are unfamiliar with the product or service being sold.Source: Boundless. Online Sales Promotion. Boundless Marketing. Boundless, 14 Nov. 2014. Retrieved 26 Jan. 2015 from https://www.boundless.com/marketing/textbooks/boundless-marketing-textbook/personal-selling-sales-promotion-14/consumer-sales-promotion-methods-96/online-sales-promotion-477-4143/According to Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman, Alibaba One big worry is logistics. http://www.ixiacom.com/about-us/news-events/corporate-blog/technologists-view-flipkart-website-fiasco--lessons-learnedHere are a few pointers:1. Product offering & volumes for deals didnt mash-up. Complimentary products were not knitted well, there was zero up-selling.2. Too many patches and new elements across the software creating a never been here before experience for regulars of Flipkart. There was too much of jargon and far too many variables. It looked like that there was an attempt to accommodate all whims and fancies of their investors, their investors investors and those of their cousins, uncles and aunts. A few comfort zones which were left after this onslaught were handed over to promoters, shareholders and employees to fool around with, which they did. 3. Oo, we dont believe in what we are doing, was the message Flipkart was going all over India with. No cancellation, no refund policy destroyed faith and trust factor You buy, your luck, your fate, my money this noise was heard by almost all customers who were not buying for the first time on internet.4. The whole user experience was pathetic, there were too many variables competing for real-estate on each page. Flat discount, minimum discount, upto discount and so many other terms competed against each other for eroding trust and confusing customer.5. Market place model brings about its challenges, it is fully understandable. Limitations to Cash-On-Delivery items really hit hard hundreds of thousands of users who logged in with anticipation of good deals. There were no good deals on COD and that cultivated doubt & implanted suspicion about scam in the minds of buyers.6. Pricing was not trustworthy. Fictitious brands, fictitious prices kind of feel was all over the website and in all departments, making one doubt credibility of Flipkart. If one had already not given-up on that.7. Flipkart underestimated financial muscle, product selection, logistics handling and preparedness of its worthy competitors Amazon and Snapdeal. They both reaped huge dividend of Flipkarts failure and rickety execution.8. Websites run on servers, not on pages of leading newspapers, looks like this fact was not told to Flipkart or if they were aware they choose to ignore it. They were not prepared to handle the kind of traffic they bought with massive marketing campaign. It looked like that there were no calculations and/or projections done to estimate server load.9. A banana leaf over your head cant save you from a hailstorm. Unprecedented technology issues ripped the site apart, there were bugs and erroneous integrations at more lines of code than even a first time programmer would be allowed to getaway with.10. Product Selection was not balanced, it didnt factor user choices and was too confusing and unconvincing. There was a rush for a few brands where products were well established nut they didnt have adequate numbers to keep the excitement on.