The e-commerce sector in the festive sale period between mid-October to November clocked $8.3 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV), up around 65% from the previous year. Flipkart Group including Myntra emerged as the leader, said management consulting firm Redseer.
Flipkart Group comprised 66% of the overall GMV clocked by e-commerce firms in the festive season. Last year, GMV clocked by e-commerce firms stood at $5 billion during the festive month.
This year’s festive sales also saw 88% customer growth from last year, as close to 40 million shoppers coming from Tier 2 and beyond cities bought on e-commerce platforms.
Overall, 88 million shoppers purchased goods on e-commerce this festive season, with 55% coming from Tier 2 towns, and 45% from metros and Tier 1 cities.
Last year, close to 47 million shoppers bought from e-commerce during festive season sales.
Factors like presale awareness, pent up demand by customers, wide selection across categories, disruption of offline stores along with multiple credit and affordability constructs helped major e-commerce players to drive growth this festive season.
“One clear lesson from this festive season is that e-commerce has become more mainstream than ever. And it has proven that with the right assortment at the right prices which is delivered quickly in the safety of customer’s homes – the value proposition of e-commerce is very powerful.
Thus, it is imperative for brands and sellers to shift their focus to online quickly and enable a seamless online experience for the customer in order to thrive in a post COVID world,” said Mrigank Gutgutia, director, e-commerce, RedSeer Consulting.
In the category mix, smartphones continued to dominate across all the products, with an increasing share of users from Tier 2 cities. With covid forcing individuals to work-from-home, even electronics and large appliances saw a jump, clocking 29% of the overall GMV, during this festive sale.
On the other hand, fashion took a minor hit during this festive sale as covid placed restrictions on ‘stepping out’ behaviour of consumers. GMV per customer also dropped to ₹6,600 from ₹7,450 in last festive season, Redseer added.
Earlier, Mint had reported that a total of 52 million shoppers flocked on e-commerce websites, in the first week of 2020 festive sales, with 57%, or 31 million customers coming from smaller cities and towns.
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