 "E-commerce, online shopping")
E-commerce firms such as Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Meesho and Snapdeal are witnessing booming festive season sale events. They are witnessing over 15 per cent growth in e-commerce order volumes in the first few days of various sale events that they launched recently, compared to the same period last year, according to analysts and industry sources.
E-commerce firms such as Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho and Myntra are witnessing millions of shoppers coming to their platforms to grab the special deals on offer as the e-commerce firms started hosting their biggest festival season sales during the weekend, according to the sources.
Amazon launched its month-long flagship festive sale, the Great Indian Festival (GIF), on 8 October, with early access for Prime members beginning 7 October. Flipkart is hosting its annual flagship sale event, 'The Big Billion Days' (TBBD), from 8 October to 15 October, with early access for Plus customers beginning 7 October.
"Early trends indicate that the first two days (7th and 8th of October 2023) of the festive season sale of 2023 have witnessed over 15 per cent growth in e-commerce order volumes as compared to the first two days (22nd and 23rd September 2022) of the festive season sale during 2022,” said Kapil Makhija, chief executive officer, Unicommerce, an e-commerce technology company. “As per Unicommerce’s analysis, this time frame covers the shopping patterns of premium members on various online platforms. Given the fact that this year’s festive season sale started during the 'shraad cycle,' which was not the case in 2022, we can expect a further spike in numbers during the second leg of the season’s sale.”
Online fashion retailer Myntra said it has witnessed a stellar response across the core and emerging categories during its flagship sale event, Big Fashion Festival (BFF), which started on 7 October. The company said it is seeing very strong demand coming from both metros and non-metros, with day one of this edition of BFF having seen millions of customers thronging the platform. The geographical diversity was evident, with approximately 45 per cent of orders coming from Tier-II and Tier-III cities and beyond. As the country embraced the festive fever in full swing, the most purchased items included kurta sets, lehengas, co-ord sets, shirts, jeans and t-shirts.
In addition to core fashion categories, customers are showing a high inclination towards emerging categories including jewellery, beauty and personal care, watches and wearables, luggage, home, and sports footwear.
“On the opening day, categories like beauty and personal care and jewellery recorded over 100 per cent growth in demand during the same period last year,” said Neha Wali, head of revenue and growth, Myntra. “Our much-loved Gen Z proposition, FWD, also saw an uptick in demand of 3X over business as usual (BAU) with consumers across metros and non-metros alike.”
Myntra is expecting over 8 million customers to shop during BFF. Last year, about 6 million customers shopped during the event.
“We also witnessed a larger number of customers exploring newer categories and differentiated propositions across the platform,” said Wali. “This includes the addition of the constructs such as 'TryNew' that encouraged customers to explore newer brands and products, this festive season.”
SoftBank-backed e-commerce company Meesho said it is delighted by the exceptional response to its flagship Mega Blockbuster Sale. The company said that Tier-II, Tier-III, and Tier-IV cities accounted for 70 per cent of orders.
“Small business participation increased, with 60 per cent of sellers coming from Tier-II cities and beyond,” said a Meesho spokesperson.
Meesho said leading categories such as footwear, fashion accessories as well as home and kitchen garnered more than 15 orders per second. Top-selling products included sarees, watches, Bluetooth headphones and toys.
E-commerce firm Snapdeal said it is expecting significant 30 to 40 per cent year-on-year growth during this festive period.
“Our festive assortment is focused on meeting our customers’ expectations - high-quality products at great prices,” said a Snapdeal spokesperson. “This festive season, fashion and beauty will take centre stage with over 50,000 styles and top brands with up to 60 per cent off plus an extra 20 per cent off.” The company has also gone through a comprehensive app makeover. This includes a visually enhanced interface that showcases merchandise more effectively. It has also introduced a fresh range of products in tune with the latest trends.
E-commerce retailers are expected to garner sales worth Rs 90,000 crore this festive season, 18 to 20 per cent higher than last year, according to a report by Redseer Strategy Consultants. This will be driven by about 140 million shoppers who are expected to be transacting online at least once during this festive month.
This is the 10th year of the festive season sales for online retailers in India. The first ever Indian e-tailing festive season sales happened in 2014. Over these 10 years, Indian e-tailing has transformed almost entirely as the annual GMV (gross merchandise value) for the overall e-tailing industry has grown almost 20 times in the period. In 2014, the industry clocked a GMV of Rs 27,000 crores in the whole year. Redseer said this year (2023) the same is expected to be approximately Rs 5,25,000 crore. In the process, the number of annual transacting users has jumped 15x.
