Flipkart leads as India online festive sales clock $8.3 billion

According to a market research firm, Flipkart Group emerged as the leader during the whole festive month with 66 per cent share of the total sale.

Bengaluru: The festive online sales in India beat industry estimates to clock $8.3 billion (nearly Rs 61,253 crore) in the October 15-November 15 period -- an impressive growth of 65 per cent (on-year), a new report said on Friday.

The gross merchandise value (GMV) numbers increased from $5 billion last year upto $8.3 billion this year, riding on the massive orders coming from smaller cities and towns, according to homegrown consulting firm Redseer.

According to the market research firm, Flipkart Group emerged as the leader during the whole festive month with 66 per cent share of the total sale.

"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 fairly comfortably, showing how comfortable consumers have become with shopping online even in this pandemic hit year," said Mrigank Gutgutia, Director at RedSeer.

The festive season for this year saw 88 per cent customer growth from last year which was driven by about 40 million shoppers from tier 2 and above cities.

Further, mobiles continued to dominate across all the products and with further increasing share of users from Tier 2 and above cities, GMV per customer dropped to Rs 6,600 from Rs 7,450 in last festive season.

One clear lesson from this festive season is that e-commerce has become more mainstream than ever.

"It has proven that with the right assortment at the right prices which is delivered quickly in the safety of customer's homes, the value proposition of eCommerce is very powerful," Gutgutia said in a statement.

"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".

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

Smartphones worth Rs 1.5 crore were sold every minute across online platforms in the first week of festive sales -- enabled by value selection, affordability schemes and fast delivery.

The biggest growth lever this year was the massive addition of shoppers.

Over 55 per cent of shoppers came from tier II cities like Asansol, Ludhiana, Dhanbad and Rajkot, among others.

Given the Tier 2+ skew of the shoppers, buyers preferred affordable price ranges this year for almost all product categories, instead of expensive items.

Earlier reports had suggested that online retailers were expected to generate approximately $6.5 billion (Rs 47,751 crore) in sales during the festive month (October 15-November 15).

(IANS Report)