Shoppers from smaller towns drive business during Amazon sale

The e-commerce major said that over 65% orders came from tier II and tier III cities and towns

Global e-commerce major Amazon.in today said shoppers from tier II and tier III cities besides mobile users accounted for major chunk of business during its 'The Great Indian Festive Sale' which concluded on Friday.

"We saw a 400% increase, on a daily basis, in the number of new customers to www.Amazon.in. Majority of them were from tier II and tier III geographies.

"Over 65% orders came from tier II and tier III cities and towns across numerous categories," Amazon.in said in a statement.

It added: "Traffic from mobile was over 70% and lakhs of new customers came from cities like Aurangabad, Malappuram, Dhanbad, Kannur, Tiruchirappalli, Jamshedpur and others."

Amazon said the sale this year was four times bigger than the last years' Diwali promotion event on amazon.In.

"All top deals got sold out in under 30 minutes of going live with thousands of customers joining the waitlist every hour," it added.

Top selling categories during the sale were consumer electronics, apparel, home & kitchen, books and shoes.

With the onset of the festive season, both Flipkart and Amazon tried to woo shoppers with best deals and grab market share.

Both firms invested heavily on bringing the best deals for customers across categories like apparel, electronics and household items as well as on logistics to ensure speedy delivery to ensure the customer experience doesn't suffer, analysts said.

They added that a significant chunk of the annual sales of e-commerce firms in the country comes during the third quarter of the fiscal, which coincides with the festive season in India.