Meesho beats Amazon in festive sale order volumes: Report

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SoftBank-backed Meesho has surpassed e-commerce giant Amazon to take the second spot for the current festive sale in terms of order volume while Flipkart continues to lead, according to management consulting firm RedSeer. This comes after years of competition between Flipkart and Amazon. Meesho has entered this competitive landscape for the first time during the festive season, which is the busiest time for e-commerce businesses in India.

Walmart-owned Flipkart group led the order share with 49 percent, while Meesho came in second with 21 percent.

In terms of market share; however, Flipkart remains the leader, followed by Amazon.

“Flipkart Group (Flipkart, Myntra and Shopsy) continues to maintain its leadership position with 62% market share in gross merchandise value (GMV) during the Festive Sale Week 1. In terms of order volumes, Meesho, with its low average order value (AOV) and high penetration in Tier-2 cities, emerged as the second largest player capturing ~21% of the market share while Flipkart Group leads here as well,” said Sanjay Kothari, Associate Partner at Redseer.

In the first week of the festive season in India, e-commerce players sold goods worth $5.7 billion. Mobile phones accounted for 41 percent of total sales, while fashion contributed 20 percent, which was 48 percent higher than the previous year's festive sales.

When compared to business as usual (BAU) days, mobile sales saw the highest growth at ~7X, followed by electronics and large appliances at ~5X, fashion at ~3X, and other categories at ~2X.

In the first week of the sale, 75–80 million shoppers made purchases, a 24 percent increase over the same period last year, according to the report. During the first week, the spend per shopper increased marginally by 3%. In terms of transacting shoppers, the number increased by 24% Y-o-Y with ~65% of shoppers coming from Tier 2+ cities​.

“The growth in shoppers partially comes from the vast catalogue the etailers have been able to offer, financial constructs that aid affordability and tech innovations (like live commerce) that continue to drive adoption and excitement,” the report added.

The report added that while demand was slow in the first quarter, there was a good uptick in consumer sentiment and consumption in late August and September. This will result in further demand recovery leading up to Diwali, said the report.

Moneycontrol previously reported that in the first four days of the festive season, e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, and others recorded cumulative sales worth Rs 24,500 crore ($3.5 billion), primarily driven by smartphone sales.