Amid worries over demand revival, Axis Bank sees 10 times growth in online shopping fest

Even as policy makers grapple with ways to revive demand in the pandemic-hit economy, an online sale fest launched by Axis Bank offering 15 per cent discounts is witnessing a 10-times surge in daily volumes, a senior official has said.

The bank is giving its debit and credit card holders a flat 15 per cent cashback on partner e-commerce portals like Flipkart and Amazon as part of the ten-day 'Grab Deals Fest' which is on till July 4.

“We are witnessing a 10x jump in overall spends by gross merchandise value (GMV) if I were to compare it with daily average in the month prior to launch and almost similar increase in the number of customers who are availing the offer,” its president and head of digital business and transformation, Sameer Shetty, told PTI.

It can be noted that the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has hit demand across the economy, with many analysts saying that private consumption has fallen in such a way that even staples have been hit. Even as the lockdown measures get eased, demand will take time to revive as income generation needs to come back first.

Usually, a lot of the e-commerce sales activity happens around the festive season towards the end of the year. There are reports saying the e-commerce players are expecting a subdued activity this year.

Shetty said the bank is witnessing a surge in ordering from urban areas where e-commerce ordering is active but stressed that the ordering is across income segments.

The products ordered can largely be called discretionary items, Shetty said, hinting that the bank's experience cannot be exactly compared with the macro picture because of a slew of factors like a small set of people in the economy it serves and their background.

The bank launched the offer because it thought that the second wave is now receding and people are coming out of stressful times. The lender's main focus is making as many customers avail of the offer rather than looking at the GMV, he said, adding that such schemes aim to deepen the connection with customers.

The discounts are shared between the bank and the e-commerce major, Shetty said, maintaining that the bank does not want to do big bang shopping festivals and will continue with such deals regularly.

The response to the current offer is “far beyond” expectations, Shetty said, exuding confidence that by the time the offer ends, the bank would have done significantly better than what it aimed for initially.

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