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The purpose of this paper is to understand the behavioral lessons and managerial implications of deep discount strategies used by e-commerce firms to gain a competitive advantage over rivals. The paper seeks to understand the behavioral aspects of consumer and competitor response to such online sales, particularly with reference to e-satisfaction and e-loyalty. The case study seeks to: understand the behavioral aspects of utility and customer satisfaction; understand the behavioral aspects influencing customer attitudes, preferences and choice; understand heuristics involved in consumer decision-making; and understand possible firm strategies based on a thorough analysis of behavioral influencers of customer decisions.

The paper follows a case study approach. Secondary data sources from the library, company website and newspaper articles have been used to build a case which would encourage students to discuss and analyze the application of principles of behavioral economics to marketing problems faced especially by e-retailers. It uses Flipkart’s botched-up Big-Billion Day sale to drive home lessons in behavioral economics to marketers.

With growing internet penetration, e-retail presents high potential in India along with its BRICS peers. However, the task of grabbing customer mindshare, as also a share of wallet of the growing Indian purchasing power through monster discounts and deals by e-tailers may not work. Firms such as Flipkart may strategize using principles of behavioral economics including confirmatory bias, framing effects, reference points, principles of loss aversion, heuristics and the peak–end rule to influence customer decision-making in their favor. They must also guard against any incidents/events which invoke the representativeness heuristic or negative confirmatory biases towards e-commerce portals.

E-tailers in countries like India should understand the behavioral implications of deep discount strategies and deals offered by them as a means of gaining competitive advantage. Attention to e-service outcome quality and e-service recovery is important.

The case is unique in its applications of behavioral economics principles to e-retailing in India. It seeks to apply behavioral principles to a major e-commerce marketing event in India. With the e-commerce industry likely to boom in India, the case study provides unique insights into competitive pricing strategies adopted by e-retailers and the feasibility thereof.

Surface pretreatment of iron and its alloys to remove stains and inorganic contaminants on the metal surface undergoes dissolution by virtue of the strong acidic media thereby increasing its susceptibility to corrosion. The purpose of this study is to explore the corrosion mitigation prospects of green corrosion inhibitors on mild steel surface.

Corrosion inhibition performance of Garcinia gummi-gutta leaf extract (GGLE) was explored against mild steel in 1 M HCl solution using the weight-loss method, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and potentiodynamic polarization (PDP) techniques. Surface characterization was carried out to study the mechanism of inhibitor action.

The concentration of GGLE varied from 100 to 6,000 ppm and the result indicates that corrosion inhibition efficiency was amplified by raising the inhibitor concentration. The maximum inhibition efficiency was 82.2% at 6,000 ppm concentration. EIS results show the development of a protective layer of inhibitor molecule over the metal surface and PDP demonstrates that the inhibitor operates as a mixed-type inhibitor. Scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy were executed to assess the surface morphology and roughness, respectively.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, so far, no studies have been reported on the corrosion inhibition performance of GGLE which is rich in many bioactive components especially hydroxyl citric acid. This work encompasses the corrosion inhibition capability of GGLE against mild steel in an acidic medium.