In my opinion, Flipkart’s “The big billion day” was a huge scam.
First let me explain what I did. Instead of manually refreshing the page every 5 seconds to check if new "STEAL DEALS" had arrived, I wrote a simple python script to do the same. You can check out my python script here. (shadowfax92/flipkart_parser.py)
Basically, the script parsed Flipkart’s page every 5 seconds to see if any new product had arrived in “STEAL DEAL” section. If a new product had arrived, my scripted shouted “Ring Ring Ring” (Thanks to OS X “say” command :P) on my mac and then send out a mail along with few product details like Name of product, discount offered/price, status of product (whether sold out or not) and the link to the "shop now"/"view product" page. What I noticed (once the script started working) is very bizarre. Whenever a new product arrived (the one's with crazy discounts like 90% and above) in the “STEAL DEAL” section, it was already in “Sold out” state. This basically means two things, either someone bought all of these products within 5 seconds (which is very unlikely) or Flipkart was simply fooling the customers into believing that they were too late in selecting the product. I think the latter case is more plausible.
Indirectly, Flipkart was attracting a huge number of customers to their page who finally ended up buying the next best thing.
Few of the sample mails sent by my script:
Mail-1:
from: X@somemail.com
to: Y@somemail.com
date: Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 6:11 PM
subject: Simmtronics Xpad X802 Tablet
Simmtronics Xpad X802 Tablet
Offer: Sold Out
Flat at Rs 99
http://www.flipkart.com/simmtronics-xpad-x802-tablet/p/itmdjz8q2tey9cfy?pid=TABDJZ8Q2TEY9CFY&offer=D_Day_SimmtronicsXpad_StealDeal.
Mail-2:
from: X@somemail.com
to: Y@somemail.com
date: Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 6:11 PM
subject: HGST Touro Mobile 2.5 inch 1 TB External Hard Disk
HGST Touro Mobile 2.5 inch 1 TB External Hard Disk
Offer: Sold Out
Flat 90% Off
http://www.flipkart.com/hgst-touro-mobile-2-5-inch-1-tb-external-hard-disk/p/itmdv9f8ugypcxkb?pid=ACCDHUJHVBD9ZXZU&offer=D_Day_HGST1TBHarddrive_StealDeal.
PS: Did anyone actually mange to buy any product in the "STEAL DEAL" section? (I mean the one’s with crazy discount, like 90% and above)