E-com firms log 28% rise in orders in first 2 days of festive season: Study

Personal care and electronics excluding cell phones are the two top categories in terms of sales

E-commerce companies reported a 28 per cent growth in orders in the first two days of festival sales this year compared to the time in 2021, said a report.

According to e-commerce technology firm Unicommerce, there was over 32 per cent year-over-year growth in festival order volumes for tier three cities and over 20 per cent growth in tier II volumes. Tier one cities reported a 28 per cent order volume growth.

Unicommerce analysed data for more than 7 million orders processed on September 23 and 24 with sales on October 3 and 4 in 2021. "Over the years, online shopping patterns have changed significantly as consumers increasingly opt to shop online during the festive season,” it said.

Personal care was the fastest-growing segment with over 70 per cent year-on-year (YoY) order volume growth during the first two days of the festive season sale of 2022. The electronics segment reported a 48 per cent YoY order volume growth (excluding mobile phones). Growth in electronics is driven by audio products and smart wearables.

The fashion industry continues to be the dominant category, with maximum order volumes. While the segments have reported a 7 per cent YoY order volume growth, but its huge growth in absolute terms, considering the high order volumes.  Other segments such as homes decor, gifting products, furniture, and jewelry have also witnessed strong growth during this festive season sale.

Despite concerns around inflation and discretionary spending, millions of shoppers went online to grab special deals on offer as e-commerce firms, such as Flipkart, Amazon, Meesho, and Myntra, started their biggest festival season sales on Friday.

The ninth edition of ‘The Big Billion Days’ (TBBD), Flipkart’s annual flagship event, witnessed the number of concurrent users on the app at 1.6 million per second. Categories like laptops, smart watches, and wireless witnessed the highest demand. The makeup and fragrance category also saw high traction. In the sport and fitness category, bicycles were the highest-selling product within the first 24 hours of the event, with one cycle sold every second.

Amazon.in logged the highest single-day sign-ups for its Prime service, with 68 per cent coming from tier two and three cities. Over 60 per cent sales for Amazon Fashion came from tier 2 and 3 cities. Amazon Business witnessed 50 per cent growth in customers and 100 per cent orders in 36 hrs. Amazon Fresh grew by over 2.5X over an average business day.

Meesho said it clocked a record about 8.76 million orders on the first day of its flagship sale event — the Meesho Mega Blockbuster Sale. This is the highest number of orders recorded by the SoftBank-backed firm in a single day.