Festive sales: Small towns saw 40% participation from shoppers

What an exciting week it’s been! This festive season India's biggest online marketplaces Amazon.in, Flipkart, Snapdeal and Shopclues have locked horns and gone head to head with their flagship Saleevents to gain market share and register increased transactions and gross merchandise value (GMV).

The third quarter (October-December) is generally the most encouraging for all the retailers as the festive mood drives shopping and GMVs are on all-time high. This has also been a very exciting time for Affiliate Marketing industry. Every midnight many of us stayed up in eagerness to see what the latest offers coming out were, and we weren’t disappointed!

With the launch of Amazon’s Great Indian Festival, Flipkart’s Big Billion Days and other big sales from Snapdeal, Shopclues and more, the Indian e-commerce saw early 2015 type euphoria coming back! A key difference was that offers were being pushed across Mobile App, Desktop and Mobile sites. Last year’s sale was all about the Mobile App. This year’s sales were about all form factors as retailers realized that both mediums have their own merits and cannot be ignored.

At our website we were giving shoppers extra Cashback on absolutely all their online shopping. We saw some interesting trends.

Last year, Mobiles & Electronics dominated the top selling categories, with 35% and 22 percent product share, respectively. Deals on Mobile and Electronics always have better traction as its easy to buy this category online based on specific features and of course the sheer ticket value.

Related stories

Rohan Bhargava

Co-founder|CashKaro

• 
  Planning to raise funding for your startup? Here’s what VCs look for

This year, deals on iPhone 5s, 6, 6s and 7 have been unbelievable with stocks Sold Out within hours. Overall transactions in Fashion (20 percent) & Beauty (5 percent) vertical have grown.

Retailers are banking upon this category as it offers higher margins for them. Recently introduced, faster delivery options by various ecommerce sites have greatly enabled growth of the consumables category with a 6%.share.

Moreover, dedicated days like Amazon’s Super Value Days and Snapdeal’s Daily Needs store have really brought focus and momentum in this category.

Compared to last year, we also saw Gift Cards as a category gain popularity registering a 5X increase in the number of orders this festive season vs normal days of the year.The big sales have not only attracted shoppers from the top metros but also registered close to 40% participation from Tier 2 - 4 cities.

Upcoming cities such as Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Chandigarh are increasingly becoming important for e-commerce companies followed by Tier 2/Tier 3 cities such as Bhopal, Pimpri, Chinchwad, Ernakulam, Bhubaneswar and those in Telangana region etc.

Bank card offers were a key trend this season and often became a deciding factor. Flipkart, Amazon.in, Snapdeal and ShopClues all offered additional discounts through strategic partnerships with various banks like HDFC, SBI, ICICI Bank, Standard Chartered, and American Express etc. This further augmented sales and drove order value this festive season.

As an affiliate we too have registered a 6X increase in number of transactions via CashKaro and a 2X increase in the average order value this festive season. Retailers have also offered increased affiliate commissions on categories like fashion, beauty and consumables as affiliate sites form about 20 percent of their business.

Comparing to the West, the concept of special shopping days is also hugely popular. Days like Boxing Day, Black Friday & Cyber Monday remain amongst the biggest shopping days of the year. As in India, Mobiles, Electronics and Fashion remain top product categories. Loyalists’ line-up from night before outside big box retailers like Macy’s Inc, Nordstrom Inc, Target Corp., Gap Inc, Debenhams, NEXT, Neiman Marcus,Apple, to avail deals and offers across product categories.

Sales surge on these days and retailers register 3X to 6X increase in number of transactions. Just like people wait to shop on these special days in the West, in India the first week of October has the same charm!

Though as the e-commerce market is more nascent here, the competition is more cut-throat.

Similarly in China, Singles' Day (Alibaba has trademarked the day) a special shopping day has gradually become one of the largest online shopping days in the world, with sales in Alibaba's sites Tmall and Taobao at over US$14.3 billion in 2015.

Smartphone maker Xiaomi, the biggest-selling brand of Singles Day, sold 1bn yuan (£100m) worth of merchandise by midday 2015 – almost twice its total sales 2014 Singles Day.

In India, we are just one week into October. It will be exciting to see what the rest of the festive season will bring for the Indian online shopper.

(edited for moneycoyntrol)