Flipkart, India's largest online retailer, claimed on Thursday that it sold as many as 1.3 million smartphones in the first 20 hours of the category opening for its annual Big Billion Day sale. The company also said that smartphone sales on Day 1 were double the number of handsets it sold during the same time last year. According to Flipkart, the feat helped it maintain a healthy lead over Amazon, its nearest competitor in the Indian e-commerce segment.

Flipkart claimed that it sold more smartphones on the first day of the Big Billion Day sale than the total number of smartphones sold across India in a single day, both through online and offline channels. The Bengaluru-based company also said that it had managed to sell three times the number of smartphones sold by Amazon during the same time period.

Flipkart
The logo of India's largest e-commerce firm Flipkart is seen on the facade of the company's headquarters in Bengaluru on July 7, 2017. REUTERS/Abhishek N Chinnappa

Flipkart had reportedly seen overall sales of Rs. 1,400 crore in a single day during the smartphone sales last year. Although the company has not yet disclosed gross sales number for this year, it claims that it accounts for 65 percent market share of the country's overall online sales while it now owns 75 percent in the smartphone category, since this year's Big Billion Day sales went live on Wednesday.

"These numbers reinforce our position as the absolute leader in smartphones," Ayyappan Rajagopal, Senior Director, Mobiles at Flipkart, said in a statement. What Flipkart offers -- the latest phones, the large number of exclusives, affordability measures like No Cost EMI, Buyback Guarantee etc. -- are unmatched in the industry."

Flipkart, Big Billion Days Sale 2017, details
Flipkart Big Billion Days sale details announced; up to 90% discount in the offingFlipkart Official Twitter handle (screen-shot)

Meanwhile, Amazon has also claimed to have doubled its smartphone sales before the end of the first day of its Great Indian Festival, which started on Thursday.

"We have already seen a 100 percent increase over previous Diwali, even before the end of Day One. For smartphones, we saw an even larger gain, that grew 150 percent over 2016," an Amazon spokesperson told the Economic Times.

Amazon Great Indian Festival Sale
Amazon Great Indian Festival SaleAmazon

According to Flipkart, it had conducted a survey among customers a few weeks before its annual sale began. The goal was to figure out what customers want in terms of products, offers and prices.

While Apple iPhones, Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, and Samsung Galaxy S7 and S8 were some of the best-selling smartphones on Flipkart, the company also offered attractive deals on other popular devices like Sony Xperia XA1, Asus Zenfone 3 Laser, Lenovo K8 Plus and OPPO F3 Plus.

Amazon also offered plenty of attractive discounts on smartphones, including LG G6, Apple iPhone 7, Xiaomi Redmi 4, Moto G5s Plus and OnePlus 3T.