Festive sale: Tier-II, III cities drive big biz for Flipkart and Amazon

Tier-II and tier-III cities are driving big business for e-commerce firms — Flipkart and Amazon — for the ongoing festival season. 

Walmart-owned Flipkart on Monday night said tier-II and tier-III cities ushered in the festive cheer for the firm during the second day of its flagship event ‘The Big Billion Days’ 2019. Electronics category witnessed growth of over 70 per cent from tier-II cities, with a 100 per cent increase in women shoppers from smaller towns. “We witnessed the growing appetite of tier II and III cities for mobiles, large appliances and consumer electronics,” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart. “As consumers from these cities upgrade, they are coming at par with the metros showcasing unique needs and spending patterns across these categories,” added Krishnamurthy.

Affordability constructs were a big hit. There was over 2X adoption in the ‘product exchange’ construct for mobiles and laptops, according to Flipkart. Within laptops, key segments like gaming and thin and light laptops exceeded 2X as compared to last year, leading to the overall growth of more than 10 per cent in the average selling price of the products.

For Flipkart mobiles saw the share of consumers picking premium smartphones increased by 97 per cent. Close to 70 per cent of customers opted for the pre-paid option for TVs and large appliances. “We are glad that most of our affordability constructs have helped get India and Bharat closer this festive season,” said Krishnamurthy.

Amazon India which is conducting  ‘Great India Sale’ said that this festive season affordability programmes such as no-cost EMI, exchange, instant bank discounts and more continue to enable record number of customers to upgrade to premium products.

“With more first-time shoppers from small towns than ever before and tens of thousands of small sellers across India already seeing success, we are excited by how India loves Amazon’s commitment to offer the largest selection, great convenience and exceptional value to its customers,” said Manish Tiwary, vice president - category management, Amazon India. He also said that Amazon.in remains the destination of choice for customers with smartphone brands OnePlus, Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi and retail brands like Shoppers Stop and Max Fashion together selling millions of products already.