Impact of Online Flash Sales on Consumers: A Success Story of Xiaomi in the Indian Market

Running Head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL 1
IMPACT OF ONLINE FLASH SALES ON CONSUMERS: A SUCCESS STORY OF XIAOMI
IN THE INDIAN MARKET
Author name
University

Research Proposal 2
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Problem Statement.................................................................................................................4
1.2 Aim and Objectives...............................................................................................................5
1.3 Research questions.................................................................................................................6
1.4 Justification and potential outcome of research.....................................................................6
2.0 Conceptual framework...............................................................................................................8
2.1 Flash sales..............................................................................................................................8
2.2 Impulse buying......................................................................................................................8
2.3 The hunger driven market and flash sales.............................................................................9
2.4 Growing e-commerce industry in India.................................................................................9
2.5 Flash sales applicability.......................................................................................................10
3.0 Research hypotheses development..........................................................................................12
4.0 Research methodology.............................................................................................................13
4.1 Survey Research..................................................................................................................13
4.2 Questionnaire method..........................................................................................................14
4.3 Longitudinal method............................................................................................................14
4.4 Secondary data method........................................................................................................15
5.0 Organisation of the study, budget, project activities and Gantt chart......................................17

Research Proposal 3
5.1 Organisation of the study.....................................................................................................17
5.2 Budget..................................................................................................................................17
5.3 Project activities and task schedule.....................................................................................18
5.4 Gantt chart..........................................................................................................................19
References......................................................................................................................................20

Research Proposal 4
Impact of online flash sales on consumers: A success story of XIAOMI in the Indian market
1.0 Introduction
India, currently, is the second largest smartphone market of the world where several
national and international companies compete to acquire consumer preference, endowing the
consumers with a large number of options to choose from. In such market environment, business
organisations need to spend considerable amount of their resources to attract sales. However,
performance of XIAOMI in its last four years of operations in Indian indicates towards the
success of its marketing efforts in acquiring and retaining the attention and preference of Indian
consumers (Singh, 2013). The flash sales played a major role in achieving this position.
However, in recent years, limitations of flash sales, has been observed that need to be addressed
for maintaining its applicability in the future promotional activities of XIAOMI (Mehta, 2016).
This assignment aims to provide a guideline for a research on the impact of flash sales on
consumer satisfaction.
For this, the assignment is segregated in five different parts. The first or the introductory
part avails an insight into the research problem, aim, objectives, research questions, justification
and potential outcome of the project. The second and third part of this assignment provides
conceptual framework and research hypotheses respectively, while the fourth part outlines the
research methodology. Finally, the fifth part includes outlining organisation of the research
study, project activities, budget and schedule.
1.1 Problem Statement
The flash sales activities are one of the key means of promotion and sales for XIAOMI in
India. The strategy cost less compared to other means of sales and marketing that the brand and

Research Proposal 5
its competitors used, yet delivered better result by developing a sense of urgency and need
among the customers, leveraging impulse buying (de Melo, Leone & Jose, 2015). Since its entry
in the Indian market in 2014, the organisation has been able to acquire 23.5% market share by
the end of 2017, while its competitors like Samsung, Oppo, Lenovo and Vivo either merely
retained their market share or lost their share (Sushma, 2017). Moreover, by 2016, XIAOMI
began to utilise additional sales measures along with flash sales. In a news report, Aulakh (2016)
suggested that the days of flash sales are over and the consumers in Indian e-commerce
environment have grown weary of the flash sales that companies arrange twice every week.
Therefore, this research study would investigate the impact of flash sales on the consumer
buying behaviour and its applicability in future marketing and sales practices, with practical
examples of performance of XIAOMI in Indian market. It is expected to compare the cost-
effectiveness and applicability of flash sales with the promotional activities, undertaken
XIAOMI and its other competitors in India. Result of this research is expected to reveal
applicability of flash sales for different promotional, sales and operational purposes.
1.2 Aim and Objectives
This research aims to investigate the effectiveness of flash sales as a means of influencing
customer purchase behaviour towards impulse buying. For this, the research issue would be
evaluated based on the practical examples of flash sale activities of XIAOMI in the Indian
market and their result.
The research objectives are as follows:
 To assess the impact of flash sales on the purchase behaviour of customers
 To examine the marketing strategies undertaken by Xiaomi Inc. in Indian market

Research Proposal 6
 To analyse the attitude of Indian customers towards the hunger driven marketing
 To critically evaluate the cost-effectiveness of marketing strategies of XIAOMI
compared to its competitors
 To determined potential issues associated with flash sales
1.3 Research questions
The primary research question for this study is,
How do Flash sales of XIAOMI influence the Indian consumers?
The subordinate research questions are,
 What are the different aspects of consumer behaviour that flash sales influence?
 What strategies does Xiaomi Inc. use to influence Indian consumer market?
 What is the reaction of Indian consumers towards hunger driven marketing?
 How cost-effective is the marketing strategy of XIAOMI in comparison with its
consumers?
 What issues flash sales activities of XIAOMI might entail?
1.4 Justification and potential outcome of research
The project is expected to compare flash sales with other promotional, marketing and
sales activities of XIAOMI and its competitors to understand its relevance in contemporary
market. It is also expected to explain the manner in which the creation of urgency through
marketing activities adds to the perceived value of a particular product hence, impulse buying,
paving the path for future studies in this field (Amos, Holmes & Keneson, 2014). The literature
linking social media presence of a company with success of their flash sales activities might be
relevant here as it explains the vast accessibility of the organisation in the target market (Chen,