 "Food Delivery")
Online shopping platforms such as Flipkart, Swiggy, Blinkit, and Zepto are witnessing blockbuster Holi festival sales.
“Swiggy has been buzzing with orders for gujiya and thandai since Friday. With a mouthwatering selection of 192 gujiya and 242 thandai varieties across India,” said Rohit Kapoor, chief executive officer, food marketplace, Swiggy, on X (Twitter).
He said that a user from Lucknow went all out, spending Rs 28,830 on gujiyas from Swiggy for his Holi celebrations.
Phani Kishan, co-founder of Swiggy and head of Swiggy Instamart, said on X that Holi preparation was in full swing across cities. The pichkaris and gulals are getting stocked, but demand for T-shirts was also picking up.
“Holi is living up to its name and beating Choti Holi numbers. Orders per minute are higher than Sunday morning. The gulal and festivities are in full flow,” said Kishan.
Swiggy Instamart has already sold 5x more flowers this Holi than last year. Almost every single order on Monday on Instamart includes a packet of gulal. One in seven orders in Bengaluru and one in five orders in Mumbai have a pichkari.
“Looks like Jaipur is having an epic water balloon fight. Someone just ordered 900 water balloons, delivered in less than 10 minutes. Hope they’re gearing up to win that splash showdown,” said Kishan.
Quick-commerce major Blinkit saw a huge increase in demand, recording its highest-ever orders on Holi, surpassing its previous sales records on Valentine’s Day earlier this year.
“We hit our all-time high orders, OPM (orders per minute), and almost every other metric on the board! Thank you for choosing us for your Holi needs,” Albinder Dhindsa, chief executive officer (CEO) of Blinkit, said in a post on X.
The bulk of the Holi shopping, Dhindsa said, tends to happen “a day earlier (on Choti Holi)”.
The Zomato-owned platform reached never-before-seen numbers in sales of products like pichkaris, coconut oil, and gulal.
“Gulal sales are through the roof… We’ve already delivered more gulal on Monday than we did same time last year. And we will cross the combined gulal sales on Choti Holi of the past two years,” he said.
Blinkit’s Mumbai-based rival Zepto witnessed a similar uptick in sales of Holi-related products.
“Holi is winding down and the after-party is setting in. Laundry detergents are spiking way beyond our expectations. Zepto never ceases to surprise me,” CEO Aadit Palich wrote in a post on LinkedIn.
In another post, Palicha revealed that white T-shirt sales spiked on Holi morning. “People are starting to realise that Zepto serves a lot more use cases than daily grocery,” he wrote.
Flipkart’s hypervalue platform Shopsy said that the uptick in sales of sweets and namkeen underscored a growing trend of indulging in Indian delicacies during Holi.
“Shopsy emerged as the go-to platform for sending heartfelt gestures of affection, with users delighting loved ones by gifting festival treats like soan papdi and kaju katli,” said the platform.
Some of the most searched keywords include ‘pichkari’, ‘Holi colours’, and ‘Holi water gun’, showcasing the heightened demand for the season.
“Shopsy witnessed heightened traction for Holi products starting at Rs 39, ensuring that vibrant celebrations remain within the budget for all,” said the firm.
Shopsy said that there has been a continuous surge in online shopping for Holi essentials, with over 3.5x growth observed over the past few years.
Shopsy’s Holi Store, which commenced on March 10, introduced consumers to an array of innovative colour options, including smoke colours, cylinder colours, and spray colours.
ALSO READ: Co-working spaces set to expand capacity in 12-24 months as demand rises
ALSO READ: Co-working spaces set to expand capacity in 12-24 months as demand rises
Classic favourites such as gulal, water guns, and water balloons soared in popularity, reaffirming the enduring appeal of traditional festivities.
The platform also saw a niche market for organic herbal Holi colours. While organic options still represent a smaller segment, this data hints at a potential emerging trend toward eco-friendly Holi celebrations.
Flipkart’s rival Amazon declined to share any insights related to demand witnessed from customers during the Holi festival. An email query to SoftBank-backed Meesho remained unanswered until the time of going to press.
India’s e-tailing sector is poised to experience a fivefold growth, surging from $59 billion in 2022 to an estimated $300 billion by 2030, fuelled by value-seeking ‘mass’ consumers, observes a report by Redseer Strategy Consultants.
The report emphasises the burgeoning adoption of e-commerce in Tier-II and beyond cities.
