Amazon on Friday kickstarted its ?Diwali Dhamaka Week? even as the offline-online controversy rages on about e-tailers indulging in predatory pricing. Though complaints to the Centre have made e-commerce firms cautious, indications are that customers will still have the last laugh.

Amazon has indicated it will go ahead with discounts during the week-long Diwali Dhamaka, introducing new deals every hour during 7am-6pm. The company is offering flat 40% off or more on luggage and bags and 30% off on mobiles, among other deals.

Amit Agarwal, country manager & vice-president, Amazon India, said, ?Each of the seven days, we will offer our customers in India great savings on thousands of products every hour. We have been receiving an overwhelming response from customers since morning for the deals and offers that are being introduced every hour as part of the Diwali Dhamaka Week.?

?We have witnessed a week-on-week increase of over 150% in the number of customers who have taken advantage of the deals and, on Monday, we witnessed a 150% increase in sales,” Agarwal told FE. He added that the company has also witnessed a spike in orders from customers in Tier II cities like Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Surat, Vishakhapatnam, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Lucknow, Patna and more.

Ashish Jhalani, founder of eTailing India, told FE that new entrants in the offline world have also indulged in promotions and are giving away freebies. “Over the short term this war is only going to get intense,” he said. He added that the brands are panicking on fear of upsetting the distribution network of brick-and- mortar players that they have established over the years. According to Jhalani, the controversies will not alter the way e-commerce players do business in India, though they might become a bit cautious.

“The late entrants in the handset market, like Motorola, could not find money to invest in expanding dealer partnerships, and network and e-commerce give them easy access to the lucrative Indian market,” Himanshu Chakrawarti, CEO of The Mobile Store, told FE. He added that some mobile manufacturers found exclusive tie-ups a way to create hype and marketing around a new device they were launching.

According to experts, some apparel players do exclusive tie-ups with e-commerce firms to test Indian waters for demand of their brand. Brands with reach across the country find this lower-than-cost price strategy a setback to the margin as it reduce their offline sales. This has resulted in many companies threatening to pull out of e-commerce sites.

According to an industry expert who did not wish to be identified, since online commerce still contributes only 0.4% of India’s total retail trade, despite the predatory pricing, brick-and-mortar companies cannot approach the competition commission according to the Competition Act.