New e-commerce trends emerge from Snapdeal's Unbox Diwali sale

Snapdeal, India's largest online marketplace, revealed interesting trends from its Unbox Diwali Sale, indicating a significant evolution in consumer behaviour this festive season.

The most surprising trend was the sharp increase in willingness of customers across India to pay at the time of making the purchase instead of opting for cash on delivery. This was in part driven by Snapdeal's partnerships with eight leading banks this Diwali including with American Express, Axis Bank, Citi Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, State Bank of India and Yes Bank.

With the highest number of card partnerships, additional instant discounts ranging from 10-25 percent were available every day of the month, over and above the huge festive discounts already available on the marketplace. One of the biggest card-based discounts - a maximum of Rs. 10,000 off on iPhone 7 turned out to be immensely popular among consumers.

Data showed that customers who bought electronics and furniture were the most likely to go for prepaid options. Among the cities, Trivandrum had the highest share of prepaid orders, constituting a whopping 85 percent of the total orders from the city. The preference for prepaid transactions was the strongest in South India, followed by North, West and East in that order.

Customers also showed a clear affinity for larger, premium appliances. 60 percent of all LED TVs sold on Snapdeal had more than 40 inches screen size. Among refrigerators, 70 percent of the models bought were of more than 300 litres capacity.

Another interesting trend observed was the increase in repeat usage. More than 6.25 lakhs users ordered more than five products and nearly 1.1 lakhs users ordered more than 10 products during the Unbox Diwali Sale. The highest number of products that a single customer ordered during the festive season was a whopping 84.

A little more than 60 percent orders came from Tier II cities and beyond. More than 82 percent of overall orders were placed through mobile platforms. Highest numbers of units ordered were for the fashion category, followed by home, electronics and mobiles in that order. In the fashion category, women's ethnic wear was the most popular purchase.

To power faster deliveries, nearly 72 percent orders were shipped out of Snapdeal's fulfillment centers (SD+). Nearly 32,000 staff was deployed every day of the month to deliver the packages across India.

On the seller side, out of the more than 300,000 sellers on the platform, more than 32,000 sellers saw sales grow seven times from last Diwali season. The cities where most of these sellers are based were: Delhi NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Bengaluru, Jaipur and Surat.