The festival season has opened a gold mine for e-commerce players as sharp surge was seen in key urban pockets during their ‘Big Billion Days’ announced by various online retail players ahead of Diwali festivals.

According to a report by Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), New Delhi topped with 82 per cent of the residents preferring to shop online during the “Big Billion Days (BBD)” sale, which is announced by the e-tailers with mouth-watering discounts.

Shoppers from Mumbai stood second with 80.5 per cent of them preferring to go online, followed by Ahemdabad (78 per cent), Bengaluru (75 per cent) and Hyderabad (72.5 per cent) in their preference for online shopping in the survey.

The survey was conducted in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata. The respondents included 350 professionals, officers and executives across various industry sectors including manufacturing, real estate, automobile, healthcare, retail and hospitality, an Assocham report stated.

New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru lead in terms of the sales, but there is also a huge surge of interest from Tier-II and -III cities such as Pune, Gurgaon, Noida, Chandigarh Nagpur, Indore, Coimbatore, Jaipur and Visakhapatnam have increased by 120 per cent year-on-year, the report pointed out.

In Ahmedabad, where the percentage of people logging into e-tailers was 50.5 per cent of the residents, the number surged to 81.5 per cent during the festival season due to available deals online, free shipping, the report noted.

Mobile phone was the most searched category online followed by apparel, computers & tablets, electronics, home-kitchen appliances, accessories and books.

Shopping time According to the survey, majority of the respondents are working and shopping at the same time between 12 noon and 5 pm on a working day. One in five online shoppers now visits a comparison shopping site too before completing a purchase on a seller website, adds the survey.

Nearly 55 per cent respondents said, they ordered around lunch time and during office closing hours.

The 18-25 years of age group has been the fastest growing age segment online with user growth being contributed by both male and female segments. The survey highlights that 35 per cent of regular shoppers are in 18-25 age group, 55 per cent in 26-35, 8 per cent in 36-45 and 2 per cent in the age group of 45-60. In the sex ratio, 65 per cent online shoppers are male as against 35 per cent female.

Most e-commerce companies are targeting 40-50 per cent revenue from mobile sales during the festival season beginning with Navratras, Durga Puja, Dussehra, Diwali and Christmas.

DS Rawat, Secretary General Assocham, said, “India's e-commerce market was worth about $2.5 billion in 2009, it went up to $6.3 billion in 2011 and to $8 billion in 2015 and is expected to touch whopping $56 billion by 2023.” The reasons for online shoppers number multiplying are because of factors such as home delivery which saves time, secondly ‘24×7’ hours shopping with ease and availability factors for product comparisons.

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