Non-metros drive Flipkart's annual sale on Day 1 with 60% of orders

Non-metro cities dominated Flipkart's The Big Billion Day sale on Day 1, accounting for 60 per cent of orders placed while mobile phones, appliances and lifestyle products were the preferred choice for customers, the company said on Tuesday.

Lifestyle products sellers on the marketplace saw a 10-fold growth in the number of orders placed compared to the pre-festive period, followed by Furniture (8-fold) and Electronics (7-fold) categories, Flipkart said in a statement.

"Over 60 per cent of orders were placed from Tier 1, 2 and 3 cities," the statement citing sales data on October 7 said.

The company recorded 9.1 crore customer visits on the first day of the sale that started on October 7.

Flipkart started The Big Billion Day (TBBD) on October 8 with 24-hour early access to its VIP members, which are paid subscribers, and Plus category members, who shop from the platform at least four times in a year.

Flipkart saw the highest number of shoppers from Bangalore, Delhi and Hyderabad, followed by Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai, and Gurgaon.

"Interestingly, Hisar, Lucknow and Patna were also among the top cities that saw a surge in orders placed by festive shoppers," the statement said.

Flipkart said that Mobiles, Appliances, Lifestyle, BGM (Beauty and General Merchandise), Electronics and Home remain the top choices for customers across India.

"Smartphones in the over Rs 20,000 segment witnessed a surge in demand among Metro and Tier 2 and beyond audiences alike. Further, Lifestyle, Electronics and Beauty and General Merchandise(including Fitness) have played a key role in new customer acquisition," the statement said.

Flipkart's travel arm Cleartrip recorded interest of customers in travelling to non-metro cities such as Goa, Jaipur, Udaipur, Varanasi, Ooty with Goa, Kochi, Jaipur, Srinagar and Chandigarh emerging as top air travel non-metro destinations.

E-commerce companies were estimated to have generated a total sale of around Rs 40,000 crore during the first phase of the festive season sales.

A recent report by the market research firm projects online sales during the upcoming festive season to grow by 18-20 per cent and touch Rs 90,000 crore this year.