Festive day sales cross Rs 26,500 crore in three days

Nearly 60 percent buyers will spend more than ₹15,000 during this festive season, Datum Intelligence said

From Flipkart to Amazon and Myntra to Meesho, e-commerce firms and retailers at large, have all seen the festive season kick off on a high as per Datum Intelligence, a market research firm focused on consumer technology, which collected sales data for three days beginning September 26, the first day of the flagship sale this year.

Online or offline, festive season sales are when customers choose to make their big purchases, in the expectation of getting the steepest discounts. The annual event kicks off around the end of September, before Diwali, and goes on for several weeks. It is a key period for companies as a majority of their yearly gross merchandise value (GMV) comes during these few weeks. Further, 60 percent of the total festive season sale GMV comes during the first week.

E-commerce firms and retailers are expected to clock a GMV of Rs 1,00,000 crore during the festive season sales this year. Of that, Rs 26,500 crore came in just the first three days, Datum Intelligence said. “That was powered by mobile phones and durables…mobiles, electronics and consumer durables, home and general merchandise accounted for 79 percent of the sales during this period,” the market research firm added in its report.

Easier credit options fuelled demand.

E-commerce giants like Flipkart said they saw 33 crore or 330 million user visits during the initial sale days this year. “Early trends suggest a promising festive season ahead…categories such as Mobiles, Electronics, Large Appliances, Fashion, Beauty and Home products (have) witnessed the highest demand among customers,” Flipkart said in a press release on September 28.

Premiumisation has been an underlying theme this year again. “Some of the early trends indicate an increase in demand for categories that enable a lifestyle upgrade,” Flipkart said.

Even Meesho, the e-commerce platform that focuses on low-priced items, said Mall, its unit for a slightly more premium set of items, saw a 2.5X growth in orders compared to last year. Of that, nearly 45 percent of the purchases came from first-time shoppers. Overall, the company said it achieved an increase of 100 percent in Day 1 orders compared to last year and surpassed daily orders by more than 3X.

Like in the past, Fashion was a predominant category even this year.

Myntra said it witnessed 15X new users over BAU joining the platform, and a near 2X spike in OPM (orders per minute) at peak over last year, in the opening hour of the event with more legs to run.

"We have been witnessing an amazing response across the core fashion and emerging categories right from the pre-buzz period and that momentum sustains,” Neha Wali, Head of Revenue, Myntra, said.

For most platforms, while metro cities were the primary markets as they accounted for 55-60 percent of total sales, Tier 2 and beyond regions such as Medinipur, Hisar, Berhampore, Bankura, Agartala and more were responsible for 40-45 percent of all sales this year.

Changing trends

At a time when the quick commerce industry is booming and giving incumbents a run for their money, companies like Flipkart, which are known for their e-commerce prowess, have enjoyed a dual advantage. “In cities like Mumbai, 25 percent of all electronics sales in hyperlocal pin codes are from Flipkart Minutes deliveries. In Delhi, this goes up to almost 40 percent in pin codes currently covered by Flipkart Minutes,” the company said in a press release.

The rapid delivery industry is eating into the share of mom-and-pop shops and e-commerce companies, as reported by Moneycontrol earlier. In the past, large purchases like laptops and more were largely restricted to e-commerce websites or offline stores but Flipkart Minutes is changing that.

“In the first 12 hours of The Big Billion Days (TBBD) this year, the top-selling electronics on Flipkart Minutes were laptops, computers, tablets, and desktop accessories,” Flipkart added while highlighting the changing trend.

Several quick commerce companies, like Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, and Tata Big Basket, are all nudging customers to purchase large ticket items like electronics, apart from groceries, to push up average order values (AOVs) and improve profitability.