The festive season this year has brought good tidings for e-commerce majors Flipkart and Amazon. Both the companies recorded significant growth in their customer base. Flipkart claimed that they have doubled their user base from last year's festive month while Amazon said that more than half of India's online shoppers transacted on its platform.

Flipkart claimed that it maintained its market share lead of more than 50%. Amazon India, too, said that more than half of Indian online shoppers bought items on Amazon. Amazon India head, Amit Agarwal, said that they were the most-preferred online shopping destination in India, adding that in fact, they have had a pan-India impact this year.

Flipkart said that they had won back some of their metro users, which was touted to be Amazon's stronghold. The e-commerce platform's new loyalty programme, Flipkart Plus has played an important role in gaining back its metro users, as reported in The Economic Times. Not to be outdone, Amazon is on its way to breach the next frontier - its next 100 million customers. And the company is focusing on small towns for an answer. Moreover, Flipkart said that 49% of its shoppers this year came from metros and Tier I cities, while Amazon said that 89% of their new customers came from small towns.

Thirty-three per cent of Flipkart's customers have come from its loyalty programme, while Amazon said that Prime users have doubled from last year.

Additionally, this year's sales were also expected to be the biggest ever with both the players clocking in $2.5-3 billion each during the festive sales. Although they did not reveal their numbers, Flipkart said that its gross merchandise value (GMV) increased 90% over the sale period last year, while Amazon said its numbers were increased by 70%.

Consultancy firm RedSeer Management put Flipkart's market share at 51% and Amazon's at 32% after the first wave of sales.