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The festive season sales across e-commerce platforms have seen massive growth as compared to muted growth in 2022, according to industry experts.
Amazon launched its marquee festive sale, the Great Indian Festival, on October 8, with early access for Prime members beginning October 7. Flipkart’s annual flagship sale event The Big Billion Days, from October 8 to 15, with early access for Plus customers beginning October 7.
Experts noted higher spending during the first phase of the sale and to continue over the 40-day festive sale period.
E-commerce enablement SaaS platforms Unicommerce said that the industry has witnessed over 30 per cent growth in order volumes during festival season sales in 2023 as compared to the corresponding period in the previous year. The overall e-commerce growth for the previous festival season recorded a significant uptick, registering a 35 per cent increase compared to the festive season sales in 2021.
“The consistent y-o-y e-commerce volume growth during the festival season highlights the increasing acceptance of e-commerce among consumers. The growth across industry segments serves as a testament to the considerable appetite consumers have for online platforms. We are delighted that our technology has played a pivotal role in supporting thousands of sellers on their e-commerce journey. Our platform has efficiently processed millions of order items for thousands of clients, we are committed to providing continued technological support as they manage the rising order volumes,” said Kapil Makhija, CEO of Unicommerce.
Top categories
Smartphones continued their dominance in terms of being the major contributor to the gross merchandise value (GMV) of e-commerce marketplaces. Flipkart reported that its premium smartphone segment grew by over 1.7X over the previous year’s sales.
“Apart from smartphones and electronics dominating this sale season with deep discounts and exciting exchange offers, TVs, laptops and large appliances have seen a massive rise in demand. These categories will drive the most GMV for us during the sale season,” said Rohan Bhargava, Co-founder of cashback site CashKaro.
He noted that the fashion category grew by 10X over BAU for CashKaro, while beauty and personal care recorded a jump of 14X in GMV.
“Our goal for this festival season is to generate more than 1 Billion clicks for our retail partners. Even at an average ₹4 cost per click provided by other performance marketing channels such as Google, marketers would pay approximately ₹4 Billion. At CashKaro & EarnKaro, they pay only for sales which provides a significantly cost-effective and ROI-positive option. We anticipate the 2023 sale season to one up 2022 for sure,” he added.
Logistics firm Shiprocket noted a surge in first-time shoppers, which is projected to contribute to 10-15 per cent of its total order volume.
According to a report by e-commerce-focused logistics firm Ecom Express and ISB, over 70 per cent of items bought online are clothes, fashion accessories, skincare and makeup products.
There are currently 125 million active shoppers and 80 million more are expected to be added by 2025, it added.
E-commerce firm Flipkart said it has recorded 1.4 billion customer visits during the first eight days of its festive season sale. The Big Billion Days, while Amazon recorded 9.5 crore customers’ visits in the first 48 hours of Great Indian Festival 2023.
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