Athira Sethu
Kochi, 30 September 2024
Early sales in ecommerce platforms begin on a strong note, indicating better days ahead of ecommerce players.
According to Datum Intelligence, nearly 60% buyers intend to spend more than Rs 15,000 during this festive season. With the beginning of festive shopping, early sales are strong for e-commerce platforms like Flipkart, Amazon, Myntra, and Meesho. The sales data was collated from September 26, the day on which major sales events of the year began.
The festive season between late September and Diwali is profoundly important for retailers which generate the major portion of their annual gross merchandise value. Typically, 60% of festive GMV happens in the first week.
This year, e-commerce companies are poised to touch an overall GMV of Rs 1,00,000 crore, with Rs 26,500 crore already recorded in the first three days. The sales figure has risen mainly because of sales in mobile phones, electronics, and consumer durables, which account for 79% of the sales.
Easy credit options give customers greater elbow room to buy more stuff. Flipkart reported mind-boggling 33 crore (330 million) page views during the initial sale days, with results indicating huge interest in categories like mobiles, electronics, and home products.
This is the first time one witnessed clear migration towards premium products, and it indicates increasing need for products that enhance lives. Meesho, known always for affordability, reported that its premium platform, Mall, recorded 2.5X order growth compared to last year with 45% of them being new customers. The Fashion Category is the most sought after, and Myntra’s new users have reported 15X growth in sales.
It is still the metros contributing to around 55-60% of the sales, while tier 2 cities and beyond, such as Medinipur, Hisar, and Agartala, have contributed 40-45% this year. This shows more buyers from other geographies are buying online.
Rapid delivery trends also led e-commerce giants like Flipkart to opt for quick commerce services to hike the sales figure. In Mumbai, Flipkart Minutes makes up 25% of all electronics sold, and in Delhi, nearly 40%. Sales of important commodities like laptops and computers are made by a huge number of customers, indicating a good change in online shopping behaviour.
