E-tailing industry generates Rs 15k cr worth biz

The five-day online sale extravaganza has witnessed sales worth Rs 15,000 crore ($2.3 billion). This is compared to approximately Rs 9,700 crore ($1.5 billion) generated in 2017 edition, showing a Y-o-Y growth of 64%.

According to data shared by Redseer Consulting, a research and advisory firm, e-tailers generated their highest ever sale performance over the five festive days from October 9 to 14, 2018. Redseer had forecast sales of $2.5-3 billion for the industry the week before the sale event kicked off.

Key drivers of strong sales performance in these five days include higher than ever awareness of sales amongst online population, which motivated them to come online in the highest numbers. Also, new affordability schemes, bank and wallet offers converted the visitors to shoppers in large numbers.

"The industry witnessed a higher growth this time compared to last year. This was driven by multiple drivers, key being a larger shopper base from Tier-II+ cities. Affordability and loyalty schemes introduced by e-tailing players also played a huge role in converting the visitors into shoppers," Ujjwal Chaudhry, Engagement Manager, Redseer Consulting said.

In 2016 festive sale period, the ecommerce majors had clocked a gross merchandise value (GMV) of $ 0.97 billion. In the subsequent year they recorded 43% rise in the GMV to $1.4 billion. During the current year, the sales have gone up by 64% to touch $2.3 billion, the Redseer analysis revealed.

Both Amazon and Flipkart held their Great Indian Sale and the Big Billion Day (BBD) sales between October 9 and 14, while Paytm held its Maha Cashback sale campaign from October 9 to 15.

Amazon.in witnessed its biggest ever festive sales with record purchases across all categories. Customers from 99% pin codes placed orders in just four days and over 80% new customers came from small towns. Smartphones had their biggest season ever with Xiaomi selling over 1 million devices in a day. OnePlus with sales of Rs 400 crore in a day and premium phones sales exceeded a month of all India online sales, Amazon said.

Fashion emerged as the biggest category in terms of units sold and new customers acquired, with 63% orders coming from Tier-II and Tier-III cities.

New sellers who participated in the Great Indian Festival for the first time, grew by 300% in sales over an average business day with 7,000 sellers crossing the millionaire mark; about 50,000 sellers had at least one order in the sale.

“We have received an overwhelming response to the 5th Great Indian Festival, with sales in the first 36 hours nearly surpassing entire first wave last year and the event exceeding our most aggressive plans across all categories” said Amit Agarwal, Senior Vice President and Country Head, Amazon India.

Flipkart’s BBD’18 has smashed all existing records to set new benchmarks for the entire Indian retail industry. It recorded over 70% share of entire Indian ecommerce market in the five-day BBD’18 sale, matching scale with global marquee retail events, the company said.

Flipkart received orders for appliances and TVs from close to 9,500 pin codes.

Paytm Mall sold over 12 million items leading with categories including mobile phones, consumer electronics, fashion and groceries among others. “We registered 5x increase in transactions and sales compared to regular days with over 60 million visitors coming to the platform during the week-long sale. The company achieved a run rate of $5 billion in GMV this month with Maha Cashback Sale," a Paytm spokesperson said.

iPhone 8, iPhone X, iPhone XS & Google pixel registered highest-ever sales on Paytm Mall with over 10x growth in sales over regular days, he added.