HomeShop18 Stays Aggressive in India e-Commerce, Nokia Prices Slashed Till Friday

Nokia N97

Last month we told you about India’s self-proclaimed largest e-commerce company, HomeShop18.com, and how it was spending aggressively to compete in the fast-growing local market. Today we received word about the company’s current Nokia Fest promotion, which sees this same competitive spirit extend to its pricing this week.

The Nokia sale comes after HomeShop18 did an online poll to see which brand people most wished to see discounted. Many of you might be surprised to find that 409 out of 741 respondents chose Nokia. But Nokia, despite being on a downslide in most regions, still accounts for 39 percent of India’s handset market share according to Voice & Data. It’s also still one of the most recognized brands in Asia.

However Nokia’s own figures show that it’s still on a downslide in the Asia Pacific region though having dropped from 30.8 million units shipped in Q2 2010 to 24.5 million a year later (see below).

So even if Nokia has lost a bit of its former shine, it’s still pretty shiny to many in India. And expect more than a few to take advantage of this week-long price drop. According to HomeShop18, users can find discounts of up to 28 percent on Nokia handsets, although a quick browse of the Nokia page seems to show an average discount of about 10 percent. The 28 percent markdown is on the N97, currently selling for 18999 INR (about $393) after the discount.

In its statement sent to us earlier today, HomeShop18 claims that it is growing faster than any other e-commerce site in the nation, with a 300 percent year-on-year traffic increase, as well as 1.7 million unique visitors. If it can continue with aggressive sales like this one, the company should continue to grow in popularity among India’s online shoppers.

[N97 Photo: zomgitcj]

Nokia Fest