Online sales may surpass Rs 30,000 crore in festive month

The survey revealed that 65% of those shopping online year-round are male whereas 35% are female

Driven by the festive fervour, online shoppers may splurge over Rs 30,000 crore on goods like mobile phones, electronic gadgets, consumer durables, apparel and home appliances during the festive season leading to Diwali, according to Assocham.

"The rise of high-speed internet has enabled more people from smaller towns to come online and buy goods this year. Moreover, rising smartphone usage in the country has helped the e-commerce industry grow," Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said.

The findings are based on a survey conducted across 10 cities in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Dehradun.

The survey revealed that 65 per cent of those shopping online year-round are male whereas 35 per cent are female. Also, men and women between the age group of 25 and 34 lead in online shopping during the festive season.

The respondents included 350 professionals, officers and executives belonging to sectors like manufacturing, real estate, automobile, healthcare, retail and hospitality.

The survey showed that Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru lead in terms of online festive season sales. However, there is also a huge surge of interest from tier II and tier III cities like Pune, Gurugram, Noida, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Indore, Coimbatore, Jaipur, Visakhapatnam which has increased 60-65 per cent year-on-year.

An age-wise analysis found that 35 per cent of regular online shoppers are in 18-25 age group, 55 per cent belong to the age bracket of 26-35, 8 per cent are in 36-45 age group and 2 per cent are aged between 45-60.

Moreover, the most sought after products through online shopping include mobile phones (78 per cent), electronic gadgets (72 per cent), consumer durables (69 per cent), gift articles (58 per cent), accessories (56 per cent), apparel (49 per cent), home appliances (45 per cent), the survey revealed.