The demise of #GOSF and why the festival will be missed

Google's decision to call off the Great Online Shopping Festival, an annual feature for the ecommerce industry and deal-hungry customers, has evoked mixed reactions from the industry

Rashi Bisaria | Delhi | November 5, 2015

When Google's much awaited Great Online Shopping Festival launched in December 2012, the ecommerce industry was just starting to unfold and netizens were slowly warming up to online shopping. Best deals across portals on a common platform gave a huge boost to the online shopping industry. It was a first-of-its-kind online shopping festival and gave the necessary push to first time buyers and also small and medium businesses. Back then only 8 million Indians were shopping online.

Today, the country has 50 million online shoppers. Perhaps this is why when Google officially called off GOSF 2015, the ecommerce industry was abuzz with strong reactions.

Affiliate websites like Cashkaro, GoPaisa that feed off such big sales and online festivals have felt the pinch, expressing surprise at this unexpected move by Google. “Though we knew beforehand that Google was debating whether to go ahead with GOSF this year, we were a little surprised with the news. The festival had gained popularity as it bought key players under one roof and offered discounts and deals across partner retailers as a medium to attract new users.  Considering that GOSF did very well last year, we were expecting similar traction this year as well. Nevertheless, we believe that Google will come up with many other initiatives to give a boost to SMEs and promote online shopping in India,” said Rohan Bhargava, Co-Founder at Cashkaro.com, an aggregator and cashback site.

In 2013, The Great Online Shopping Festival returned in a bigger format spanning three days of incessant online shopping. Google roped in 233 retailers for the second run. By now it had become an annual phenomenon eagerly awaited by shoppers and ecommerce players alike. By 2014, the number of retailers on board the festival had swelled to 550. Google's aim of getting small businesses online and providing customers the best deals was realized. By now ecommerce had gained momentum in the country and strong players like Amazon, Flipkart  had emerged and spawned their own discount festivals.

Commenting on this changing climate, Sumit Agarwal, Co-Founder, Giftxoxo.com, said, “Too much of media hype created and too many days or offers created by the current players like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal was starting to destroy the essence of shopping festivals like GOSF. Every day seemed to be a festival now. Besides, most of the small guys have become active suppliers to the big players in the industry so not much of value was being created to SMEs in the exercise. Visibility offered to small players in this exercise was getting lost.

Ankita Jain, Co-Founder of GoPaisa, expressed her view and why she thought it would be missed by the smes. “Our belief is that at first look it seems disheartening, but from a deeper perspective it is no cause of worry for top 5-10 retailers who have billions in funding. For emerging and new brands GOSF proved to be an effective marketing channel for such brands. Hence, an important support or marketing channel for brands is gone.”

According to Bhargava of Cashkaro, the signs of GOSF's popularity waning were there since 2014. When Flipkart opted out of the extravaganza it was an indication that the pace of ecommerce had picked up and there was little or no need for an annual festival to bring all players together.

As a goodbye note, Google has stated on its blog, “The pace of growth and the impact ecommerce companies are driving in India has gained significant momentum and we are pleased we were able to play our part in this journey in India.”

While the festival will be missed, Google is glad it was able to introduce new categories like real estate and auto to the ecommerce industry, could give customers some of the best deals and provided the push to SMEs online.

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