“During festive seasons, we have received feedback that products are sold out or unavailable within minutes, and with the price lock feature, people will be able to lock the inventory they need,” Jeyandaran Venugopal, chief product and technology officer (CPTO), Flipkart, said, according to Moneycontrol.

He, however, did not give a time frame regarding the service’s launch.

Venugopal was speaking at the Converge event held by Walmart, the Indian e-commerce platform’s parent firm (in May 2018, Walmart acquired77% stake in Flipkart).

Flipkart’s proposed ‘price lock’ feature:

Under this, customers will be asked to pay a small deposit; this will ensure that a particular product, which has a certain price, will remain available to them later even if there is a surge in demand for the said product.

Thus, the ‘lock’ facility will shield people from price fluctuations, as well as finishing of stocks, as these are typical during festive sales.

Festival sales cumulatively account for 50% of the gross merchandise value (GMV) for the e-commerce firms, as per the Moneycontrol report .

‘Flipkart seller base up’

Venugopal also noted that Flipkart’s seller base has jumped to 1.4 million from last year’s 1.1 million. He added that the Bengaluru-headquartered company has also been increasing its focus on customer services such as trial rooms, customer-specific beauty and personal care (BPC) guidance, among others.