The Great Online Shopping Festival is Google’s initiative to bring the same Cyber Monday fever to the Indian consumer and kicks off at midnight, December 12, 2012.

Google’s brought every popular online retailer on the Indian e-commerce scene onto one platform, to allow the Indian consumers to indulge in an online shopping extravaganza. The concept comes from the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales that come after the Thanksgiving celebration, which is always on a Thursday. It is a little ironic though, that after spending a day being thankful for what they have, the people feel compelled to lineup at 3 in the morning for Black Friday Deals. The USA has had a track record of a number of deaths occurring due to overzealous shoppers looking for that extra percent off on their favorite garment. We found the same pattern across many tech categories like cellphones, hard drives, laptops etc. However, sellers like eBay and SnapDeal will only reveal their deals once the festival has officially kicked off at midnight tonight. Some sites such as are offering discount codes that would apply to any purchase made on their site, along with discounted prices on certain items.