GOSF 2014 – Unique Taste of India Shopping Festival

The Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF) was created by Google India on 12 December 2012 in collaboration with a number of Indian online shopping portals. The idea of the GOSF was that the online shopping sites would give heavy discounts for one day, in order to promote their sales.

The concept of a one-day online sale originated in the United States, where many online shopping sites offer discounts on Cyber Monday, the first Monday after the so-called Black Friday, the day that follows the U.S. Thanksgiving. Cyber Monday started in 2005 and the concept has spread to several countries including Canada, Japan, Australia, Colombia, and the U.K.. In China a similar day of online shopping is observed on November 11, which is known as Singles Day.

How GOSF 2014 is different from other shopping festival?
This time GOSF 2014 launched pre- party concept to create pre buzz and to increase top of mind recall value amongst Indian consumers for upcoming GOSF 2014 event.
This year, Google announced a Pre-Party on Nov 25th running up to 9th Dec’14 followed by main event on 10th – 12th December 2014. Google will have a run-up event with 14 shortlisted brands, starting from 27th Nov to 9th Dec. During these 14 days, Google will reserve a day each for one company to offer day-long deals and run contests for consumers. Also, everyday, during these two weeks, a lucky winner will be announced, who will get to shop for free from a range of select items.

GOSF 2014 – Play a Game and Win a GOSF Deal?
If you think you have a matchless speed when it comes to shopping, play ‘The Game’ starting from Nov 25 till Dec 9, and stand a chance to win some fun and surprising gifts in GOSF 2014.

GOSF 2014 - Win 14min of Free Shopping?
In 2014, GOSF is partnering with 14 brands to give 14 winners FREE shopping for 14 min worth up to 2.5 lakh rupees. Each day a new brand will offer a new way to win and on December 9th, right before GOSF opens, we'll fly you down to participate in your crazy 14 min of free shopping. The brands participating in this Pre-Party are Asian Paints (25 Nov), Jet Airways (26 Nov), All New Kindle (27 Nov), Micromax (28 Nov), HP (29 Nov), Askme.com (30 Nov), Craftsvilla.com (1 Dec), Cox & Kings and ezeego.com (2 Dec), Goibibo.com (3 Dec), Big Bazaar (4 Dec), Koovs.com (5 Dec), TrendIN.com (6 Dec), Lakme (7 Dec) and Lenovo (8 Dec).

What’s Unique and New in GOSF 2014?
GOSF 2014 has 400 participating stores and 2 new sections in GOSF 2014.
400 Participating Stores
Google, for its third edition of the Great Online Shopping Festival, has roped in 300 offline and online merchants. They range from the regular e-commerce sites to large FMCG and consumer durable brands.
Interestingly, Flipkart, this time is giving GOSF a miss.

Exclusive Launch Corner
You will get to shop from among a wide assortment of never-seen-before products exclusively launched on GOSF. The Mountain View giant is expected to launch the Google Nexus 6 during GOSF.

Rs. 299 Corner
Keeping first time online buyers into consideration, this time search engine giant has launched a new section called “Rs.299 Corner”, where branded products in price range of Rs 600 to Rs 1500 will be sold at Rs.299. Delivery will be free of charge, and Google hopes to attract first-time online shoppers with cash-on-delivery. The new section will include popular brands such as Philips, Uber, JBL, Benetton, Alia Bhatt Collection and Ever Pure water purifier.

Google India has partnered Aditya Birla Money My Universe as a preferred partner for this year's event.

Last year, GOSF saw tremendous response from consumers in India and the company claimed it attracted 2 million visitors. The company had also claimed that its GOSF 2013 partners over 200 e-commerce websites saw daily sales jumping 3 to 4 times. Google had revealed that out of the 2 million unique visitors, almost half were women.

For GOSF 2013, Google said the peak time of traffic was between 2pm and 8pm each day, with 62 percent viewers coming from the 18 to 34-year old category.

It would very interesting to see the response and behavior of Indian Consumers during GOSF 2014 as similar occasions i.e. big billion day, and super savings day exclusively launched by Flipkart and Snapdeal respectively earlier this year had failed to meet expectations of Indian consumers's shopping experience due to lot of technical glitches.