Festive season sales | Flipkart grabs 68% GMV share; number of shoppers jumps to 52 million: Redseer

Flipkart has managed to grab the largest share of the total goods sold online during the first week of festive season sales, according to a report by research and consultancy firm Redseer.

The Walmart-owned company, which also houses fashion marketplace Myntra, was able to acquire 68 percent of the overall gross merchandise value (GMV), which rose to $4.1 billion this year from $2.7 billion last year, according to Redseer.

This happened at a time when Flipkart was more generous with discounts for its customers compared to Amazon, according to digital commerce analytics platform Dataweave.

The analysis which was shared exclusively with Moneycontrol showed Amazon offered additional discounts on only 26 percent products analysed for the study during the first six days of the sale compared to a regular day. While sellers on Flipkart offered additional discounts on 54 percent products during the same period.

Also read: Got a raw deal on Amazon India and Flipkart this festive season? Here is why

According to Redseer, the key themes that majorly boosted this year’s sales are affordability, mobile phones, and growth in Tier-2 cities.

The number of shoppers during the first week also jumped from 28 million last year to 52 million, with over 55 percent of those coming from Tier-2 cities like Asansol, Ludhiana, Dhanbad, and Rajkot, among others.

Smartphones continued to be the biggest category, accounting for 47 percent of the overall GMV, driven by new launches and affordable models. Smartphones worth Rs 1.5 crore were sold every minute across the online platforms in the first week of this year's festive sales, enabled by value selection and affordability schemes.

Chinese products continued to remain popular despite anti-China sentiment in the country, with Realme devices witnessing 2X growth this year on Flipkart.

Amazon, too, said the top-sold categories were smartphones, large appliances, and consumer electronics, with leading brands such as OnePlus and Xiaomi making record sales without sharing the total number of devices sold.

Also read: Chinese products hugely popular on Amazon, Flipkart despite anti-China sentiment - here is why

Fashion, while not as big a sales contributor as last year, showed resilience to reach 14 percent of the festive season sales, despite the demand for formal and festive wear still being low.

Long tail categories, including home and home furnishings, have done better due to high demand for work from home and  study from home infrastructure.

While Amazon and Flipkart Group together accounted for more than 90 per cent of the gross sales, Amazon has termed the report speculative.

"We cannot comment on speculative reports without transparent methodology. The Great Indian Festival has given lakhs of sellers and hundreds of brands their biggest festive season on Amazon. We look forward to continue helping businesses get back on track and safely deliver joy to our customers during the festive season," said an Amazon spokesperson.

Flipkart hasn't responded to Moneycontrol queries yet.

While Flipkart began its six-day Big Billion Days on October 16, Amazon, for the first time, has announced a month-long Great Indian Festival from October 17.