{"id":94829,"date":"2026-09-25T05:32:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T05:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/?post_type=glossary&p=94829"},"modified":"2026-11-05T15:12:43","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T15:12:43","slug":"big-billion-days","status":"publish","type":"glossary","link":"https:\/\/mailrelay.com\/en\/glossary\/big-billion-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Billion Days"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every autumn, millions of people in India wait for the same date, phone in hand. It’s Big Billion Days, Flipkart’s big sales event and, for many, the official start of the Diwali<\/a> shopping season.<\/p>\n\n

What is Big Billion Days?<\/h2>\n\n

Big Billion Days (often shortened to TBBD or BBD) is the most important annual sale of Flipkart, India’s largest marketplace. For several days, the platform offers big discounts on phones, electronics, fashion, home goods and almost every other category.<\/p>\n\n

It works much like Black Friday<\/a> in the West or Singles’ Day<\/a> in China. It’s a calendar event that packs a huge share of the year’s online sales into just a few days.<\/p>\n\n

Flipkart was founded in 2007 in Bangalore by Sachin and Binny Bansal. Since 2018 its majority shareholder has been Walmart, which bought 77% of the company for about $16 billion.<\/p>\n\n

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Plan your own big sale by email<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Give your subscribers a heads-up, launch early access and remind them of the date by email and SMS. With Mailrelay you can send up to 80,000 emails a month for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Create a free account<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

Big Billion Days 2026: dates<\/h2>\n\n

The 2026 edition ran from October 9 to 18<\/strong>. Flipkart Plus and Flipkart Black members, as well as holders of some partner credit cards, got early access from midnight on October 8<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

Including early access, the sale lasted 11 days. According to the Indian press, there were instant 10% discounts with Axis Bank and ICICI Bank cards, plus interest-free installment payments (No-Cost EMI<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n

A bit of history<\/h2>\n\n

The first edition took place on October 6, 2014 and lasted a single day: The Big Billion Day. According to published figures, Flipkart sold about $100 million in just ten hours.<\/p>\n\n

But that success came with problems. The website crashed several times, many products sold out within minutes and social media filled up with complaints. The founders even sent an apology email to their customers.<\/p>\n\n

Since then, the event has grown in both length and scale. In 2023 Flipkart reported 1.4 billion visits during the sale. In 2024 it passed 330 million visits between early access and the first day alone.<\/p>\n\n

In 2026, the 13th edition, Flipkart reached 6.3 million concurrent users in the first hour and passed 287 million sessions during early access alone. According to the Indian press, orders and shoppers grew by around 20-22% compared with 2025, and almost half of the shoppers were Gen Z.<\/p>\n\n

How it works<\/h2>\n\n

The format combines several tactics that any online store will recognize.<\/p>\n\n

The first is early access<\/strong>. Paying members and holders of partner cards get to shop before everyone else. It’s a way to reward loyalty and spread out first-day traffic.<\/p>\n\n

The second is deals with banks<\/strong>, which add extra discounts and installment payments. In a market where price matters so much, this makes a real difference on expensive products like a phone or a TV.<\/p>\n\n

And the third is massive advance communication<\/strong>. Weeks ahead, Flipkart releases sneak peeks of deals, activates wish lists and fills the app, social media, SMS, email and push notifications<\/a> with reminders.<\/p>\n\n

Its big rival is Amazon’s Great Indian Festival, held in the same weeks. The competition between the two makes October the key month for Indian ecommerce<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

What your email marketing can learn from Big Billion Days<\/h2>\n\n

You don’t need to sell in India or be the size of Flipkart to apply its ideas. Any store planning a sales campaign can copy the structure. This is the email sequence we suggest:<\/p>\n\n

\"Email<\/figure>\n\n