Online smartphone sales to cross $1 bn in festive sale: Counterpoint

Smartphone sales by online players like Flipkart, Amazon India and Paytm Mall are likely to cross USD 1 billion in the next five days, driven by exclusive launches, price cuts and exchange offers, research firm Counterpoint said Tuesday.

The sales are likely to hit record numbers both in terms of volume and value with online channels accounting for 42 per cent of the total sales, Counterpoint said in a report.

The five days of sale (October 10-15) is likely to surpass last year's entire smartphone sales during Black Friday in the US (a large scale shopping event), it added.

"We believe, the e-commerce will remain one of the attractive channels growing in preference for consumers as well as brand even though offline channel still occupies a larger pie of the overall smartphone market. If we compare some of the leading sale events in China and USA such as Singles' day and Black Friday, India is quickly catching up in scale with respect to these annual events," Counterpoint Research Associate Director Tarun Pathak said.

He added that this year it is estimated \that smartphones worth over USD 1 billion are likely to be sold in the next five days.

This growth is mainly expected to be driven by the multitude of new smartphone launches across different price points in the online channels this year as compared to last year.

The report said the contribution of Chinese brands to total online sales is estimated to cross 70 per cent mark this time. Also, the average selling price of smartphones in the online segment is likely to grow by 18 per cent year-on-year during the festive period.

Besides, online as a medium is likely to be more popular for mid-tier devices (Rs 10,000-Rs 15,000).