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A significantly high number of customers thronged the shopping platforms of e-commerce giants Flipkart and Amazon with the beginning of their mega festival sales event.
Flipkart’s ‘The Big Billion Days (TBBD)’, which kicked off on October 8 (early access for VIP and Plus customers was granted on October 7), garnered 91 million customer visits on Day 1. Amazon India’s Great Indian Festival (GIF), which too began on the same day with access for Prime members beginning a day earlier, generated a record 95 million customer visits in 48 hours. TBBD, which will run until October 15, triggered a sevenfold increase in orders over daily transactions, and also significant growth in the Plus membership base. “This 10-year milestone (the 10th edition of TBBD) reflects our relentless pursuit of innovation and our commitment to the larger economy,” said Arief Mohamad, vice-president, customer growth and loyalty, Flipkart. The company has deployed technologies, such as metaverse, generative AI, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR), to create an intuitive shopping experience and attract first-time shoppers.
Categories like mobile phones, appliances, lifestyle, BGM (beauty and general merchandise), electronics, and home witnessed the steepest demand. Smartphones in the Rs 20,000 segment witnessed a surge in demand among metro and tier II customers. Grooming, food and nutrition, make-up, and fragrances also saw heightened demand during early access and Day 1 of TBBD.
Most shoppers were from Bengaluru, Delhi, and Hyderabad, followed by Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai, and Gurugram. Hisar, Lucknow, and Patna, too, were among the leading cities in terms of orders placed. Over 60 per cent of orders were placed from Tier I, II, and II cities, Flipkart executives said.
Lifestyle sellers on the marketplace experienced a 10x growth versus the pre-festival period in orders placed. It was followed by furniture and electronics with 8x and 7x growth, respectively.
Flipkart has over 1.4 million sellers participating in this edition of TBBD. EMI-based purchases witnessed a 20-fold rise.
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Trends observed on Flipkart-owned Cleartrip indicated that this festival season Indians are opting to travel to non-metro destinations, such as Goa, Jaipur, Udaipur, Varanasi, and Ooty. The top air non-metro destinations include Goa, Kochi, Jaipur, Srinagar, and Chandigarh. Flipkart’s chief rival Amazon on Tuesday said shopping by its Prime members spiked 18 times in the first 24 hours (early access period) of the month-long GIF versus average daily purchase. The company said it was the best ever start to their festival season sales. “The first 48 hours has been absolutely remarkable,” said Manish Tiwary, vice-president and country manager, India Consumer Business, Amazon. “We are elated to witness the biggest ever opening with record customer visits, and the highest number of Prime members shopping during the 24 hours of Prime Early Access.”
The company said over 65 per cent of sellers on its platform hail from Tier II and II cities. The firm said that there was more than 35 per cent increase in small and medium businesses securing sales within the initial 48 hours as compared to 2022. Women entrepreneurs and artisans showcased an extensive range of products and sold over 18 products every minute.
“I’m thrilled to share that our customer transactions and orders were the highest ever for Amazon India along with the highest seller participation, and most product launches from top brands,” said Tiwary.
Amazon Pay UPI sign-ups grew the highest ever at 37 per cent year-over-year, since its launch.
Among all smartphones sold, Amazon said, 75 per cent were purchased by customers coming from tier II and III cities and beyond. Customers shopped for one TV per second with 80 per cent of all orders coming from tier II and II cities, and beyond.
E-commerce retailers are expected to garner sales worth Rs 90,000 crore this festival season, 18 to 20 per cent higher than last year, according to a report by Redseer Strategy Consultants. This shall be driven by about 140 million shoppers who are expected to be transacting online at least once during the festival month.
E-commerce firm Snapdeal said it is expecting significant 30 to 40 per cent year-on-year growth during the festival period. SoftBank-backed e-commerce company Meesho said it was “delighted by the exceptional response” to its flagship Mega Blockbuster Sale. The company said that tier-II, tier-III, and tier-IV cities/towns accounted for 70 per cent of orders.
