 "E-commerce firms witness huge jump in festive sales from towns, cities")
E-commerce firms are witnessing record-breaking sales from millions of customers across the country during the initial phase of various festive sale events hosted by them. These companies are seeing a significant portion of traffic coming from Tier-II and Tier-III cities and towns.
E-commerce firm Flipkart recorded 33 crore user visits during Early Access and Day 1 combined, during the 11th edition of the company’s The Big Billion Days (TBBD) 2024 sale event. The BBD was held on September 27, with early access beginning on September 26 for Flipkart VIP and Plus customers.
“Some of the early trends indicate an increase in demand for categories that enable a lifestyle upgrade; and Tier-II+ cities have been showing growth in the run-up to this year’s festive season,” said Harsh Chaudhary, vice-president - growth, Flipkart.
Early trends from TBBD 2024 indicate a buoyant customer sentiment overall, with categories such as mobiles, electronics, large appliances, fashion, beauty, and home products witnessing the highest demand among customers. Top metro cities such as New Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru continued to see growing demand during the first 24 hours of TBBD 2024. The shopping festival also saw demand from customers in regions such as Medinipur, Hisar, Berhampore, Bankura, and Agartala, to name a few. Customers seeking to elevate their lifestyle chose to shop for products such as ethnic wear, Western wear, sports footwear, casual footwear, and formal footwear, which saw heightened demand during Early Access and Day 1 of The Big Billion Days.
Through a variety of engaging features such as Brand Mall, FlipInTrends, and Spoyl, Flipkart said it continues to cater to diverse customer cohorts, offering personalised and trend-driven shopping experiences.
FlipInTrends saw a 10x surge, reflecting interest in curated and trending products as customers navigated the platform to discover the latest offerings in fashion and lifestyle.
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Shopsy, Flipkart's hypervalue platform, experienced a 70 per cent increase in customer visits and a 2.8x increase in transactions compared to the pre-festive season. Popular categories like lifestyle, apparel, home and kitchen grew by 2x, while beauty and personal care saw 3x growth.
TBBD 2024 saw traction across various app-based features designed to engage and enhance the shopping experience. Video Commerce and Live Commerce recorded an all-time highest viewership for non-mobile streams with a 1.8x spike in watch time compared to the pre-festive period. Products purchased during Live Commerce streams witnessed a 25x spike compared to the pre-TBBD period. Today, 85 per cent of Video Commerce consumers are youth and 65 per cent of customers hail from Tier-II cities. This showcases the growing popularity of interactive and real-time shopping formats.
Cleartrip registered a 2.5x increase in overall users on the platform compared to the pre-festive season. Air and hotel bookings saw a 3x and 4x increase, with popular destinations being Goa, Amritsar, Nainital, Varanasi, and Mussoorie.
Quick commerce
Flipkart is also seeing increasing demand for the electronics category on the newly launched Flipkart Minutes. In cities like Mumbai, 25 per cent of all electronics sales in hyperlocal pin codes are now from Flipkart Minutes deliveries. In Delhi, this figure goes up to almost 40 per cent in pin codes currently covered by Flipkart Minutes. Customers will also be able to avail themselves of Flipkart’s installation and after-sale services on large appliances and electronics when placing orders on Flipkart Minutes. In the first 12 hours of TBBD this year, the top-selling electronics on Flipkart Minutes were laptops, computers, tablets, and desktop accessories.
Flipkart’s transacting sellers saw a substantial increase in their business, with a higher number of orders placed during Early Access and Day 1 of The Big Billion Days. Over 75 per cent of sellers on the marketplace experienced multifold growth in the number of orders placed compared to the pre-festive period. Flipkart Wholesale witnessed 2x growth during Early Access of The Big Billion Days, led by 3x growth across FMCG categories.
Meesho
Meesho, which kicked off its annual ‘Meesho Mega Blockbuster Sale’ on September 27, reported a 100 per cent increase in Day 1 orders compared to last year and surpassed daily orders by more than 3x.
In the lead-up to the sale, Meesho saw about 1.5 crore app downloads, making it the most downloaded app on the Google Play Store. Nearly 6.5 crore customers visited the platform on Day 1, shopping across categories like fashion, personal care and beauty, home and kitchen, and electronic accessories. Interestingly, Meesho saw an average of 506 kurtis, 376 sarees, and 360 kids' wear items sold every minute.
“We achieved a record-breaking feat of doubling our Day 1 orders over last year. Not just that, Meesho Mall also grew by about 2.5x in orders over last year,” said Megha Agarwal, general manager, business at Meesho.
Meesho Mall saw about 2.5x growth in orders compared to last year, with about 45 per cent of these orders coming from customers shopping on Mall for the first time. Notably, Mamaearth experienced a fivefold increase in orders, Denver saw eightfold growth, Swiss Beauty expanded by 7.5 times, Bella Vita achieved 17.5 times growth, and Mars recorded fourfold growth.
With more than 20 lakh sellers and 12 crore product listings across 30 categories, Meesho aims to ensure that customers across India have a plethora of affordable and quality products to choose from this festive season.
Early trends at Amazon Great Indian Festival (AGIF) show demand for free installation services on TVs, furniture, and appliances availed by customers across over 500 cities.
There was also demand for exchange discounts (25 per cent higher than last year) on old smartphones offered across over 400 cities. Doorstep phone setup services were ordered by customers across over 250 cities.
Additionally, premium smartphones (over Rs 30,000) saw the highest year-over-year growth among all price segments. Luxury beauty saw 80 per cent growth compared to last AGIF. Watches experienced 8x growth, while premium watches witnessed 10x growth versus business as usual.
E-commerce companies and online sellers are expected to ship merchandise worth $12 billion to consumers in India this festive season, up 23 per cent compared with about $9.7 billion last year, according to data from market research firm Datum Intelligence.