Festive cheers! Ecommerce platforms, online brands sales shine on Diwali

More than 50% of the total festive sales have come through online platforms, against 45% in 2022

The festive season sale helped ecommerce companies and online brands report a rise in sales, with categories such as electronics, food, grocery, and jewellery reporting double-digit growth over last year.

According to Grant Thornton Bharat, a consulting firm, more than 50 per cent of the total festive sales have come through online platforms, against 45 per cent in 2022.

According to Unicommerce, which helps businesses sell online, order volumes for e-commerce grew about 37 per cent during the festive season sale this year, compared to 2022. In terms of gross merchandise value (GMV), online retail registered a growth of 22 per cent.

Naveen Malpani, partner at Grant Thornton Bharat, said, "This year, ecommerce is expected to account for more than 50 per cent of all festive sales in India, up from 45 per cent in 2022. Online sales are expected to grow at 18-20 per cent over the festive month of 2022, driven by around 140 million online shoppers making purchases during this period."

According to a report in The Economic Times (ET), digital transactions increased by 50 per cent year-on-year with segments such as food and grocery, consumer durables, and jewellery.

Data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) showed that there has been a 71 per cent jump in merchant transactions in September and October, with over 12 billion transactions.

Rajeev Agrawal, chief executive officer at Innoviti Payments, said, "Electronics and jewellery grew by about 10 per cent over last year, but lifestyle buying was muted, even showing degrowth."

He said that the average ticket size of transactions increased. Agrawal said, "This year, the average ticket size of transactions in the food and grocery category was up 14 per cent, lifestyle was up 9 per cent, electronics 8 per cent and jewellery 4 per cent."

Arief Mohamad, vice president (customer growth and loyalty) at Flipkart, said, "Similar to what we witnessed during the Big Billion Days this year, choices in smartphones, laptops, tablets, and home appliances indicate a strong premiumisation trend pan-India.

Malpani said that smaller cities contributed to 80 per cent of all festive sales on e-commerce platforms, up from 75 per cent last year.