E-tailers gross ₹58,000 cr in festive sales

E-tailers led by Flipkart and Amazon grossed a bumper ₹58,000 crore ($8.3 billion) in sales in the mega e-commerce festive season sales that began on October 15 and ended on November 15, registering a 65 per cent y-o-y growth and comfortably cruising past pre-festive sale forecasts. Last year, e-tailers grossed ₹35,000 crore ($5 billion) in sales.

This festive season saw the number of shoppers nearly double to 88 million, of which 40 million shoppers were from Tier-II-plus cities. Overall spend per customer dropped to ₹6,600 from ₹7,450 last year due to the huge influx of first-time, Tier-II city shoppers who typically spend lesser than their metro counterparts, reveals a report from RedSeer Consulting.

Mobile phones continued to dominate across all products, contributing to 46 per cent of the overall GMV, followed by electronics and appliances which contributed 29 per cent fuelled by new launches, affordability related to deep discounts, bank offers and smart upgrade plans offered by brands.

The fashion category was marginally down to 13 per cent from 16 per cent last year, owing to Covid-related restrictions on going out and limited number of people allowed at weddings and other festive celebrations. Long-tail categories like home, home furnishings and personal care have done better than ever due to high demand for upgrading work-from-home/study-from-home environment and the need for personal hygiene.

Growth factors

Factors like high pre-sale awareness and anticipation driven by impactful advertising campaigns, wide selection across categories, seamless supply chain planning which enabled minimal product stock outs, along with multiple affordability constructs, helped Flipkart and Amazon to drive growth this festive season.

“The overall growth story has been very bullish this festive season. We had forecasted $7 billion of sales, but the actual figures surpassed our expectations, showing how comfortable consumers have become with shopping online even in this pandemic-hit year. As per our estimates, Flipkart Group emerged as the leader during the whole festive month with 66 per cent share of the total sale” said Mrigank Gutgutia, Director at RedSeer Consulting.

Stating that it is very clear that e-commerce has become more mainstream, he said: “This festive season sale has proven that with the right assortment, at the right prices, delivered quickly to the safety of customers’ homes, the value proposition of e-commerce is very powerful. Thus it is imperative for brands and sellers to shift their focus to online quickly and enable a seamless online experience for the customer in order to thrive in a post-Covid world.”