Festive Season Sales Of E-Commerce Giants Recorded Rs 47,000 Crore GMV, Report Says (Image: flipkart.com)
A week of festival season sale which ended on October 15, has recorded Rs 47,000 crore GMV (Gross Merchandise Value). This is a growth of 19 percent over week 1 of last year, 2022’s festive season sale. The strong 19 percent year-on-year growth was steered by the high average selling price (ASP) categories, the Redseer Strategy Consultants’ latest report said.
The consultants’ group claimed that the week 1 saw the Flipkart Group still asserting its leadership in the festive sales. As per the Redseer, the week 1 of 2023 festive season had the Flipkart Group’s Flipkart, Myntra, and Shopsy leading the sales, gaining market share over 2022’s sale to reach 63 percent in GMV at the same time, continuing as the leader in terms of volume, reported the Business Standard. Amazon followed, with a considerable market share. Meesho, in terms of volume, stood by its second position, with a gaining market share of 25 percent of total orders, which was 21 percent in week 1 of year 2022 festive sales.
In 2022, four out of nine days of sale period was in the ‘shradh’ period, while in 2023, eight out of nine days were in this period. This has led the customers to over index buying of “essential upgrades” in the sale in festive season and to purchasing and upgrading high ASP consumer categories like electronics, mobiles, and other big appliances which brings in time bound deals with comfortable and smooth options for financing.
Electronics, mobiles and other large appliances, together stood for 67 percent of GMV, for week 1. The only ‘non-shradh’ day was the last day of the week 1, which recorded a 36 percent year on year growth, when looking at the last day of week 1 in the last year, 2022. The second highest year on year growth in a single day of the festive season was this.
The engagement manager at Redseer, Abhishek Tandon said, “two Indias clearly emerged in Week 1 of this festive season: One, that is holding on to spending to buy premium products at the right prices and one that is shopping more frequently but spending on value for money products,” adding that, “this ties in with our overall consumption thesis, that while Indian consumers are holding back discretionary spends, they are willing to spend if they get the desired value or deals.”
Driven by the easy options for financing and a fear of missing out, which was largely created by the features – the “pre-book and price-lock” for the first time, the theme of premiumisation could be seen playing out in the cases of high ASP categories. Redseer said that 30 percent of customers in the high ASP categories, made use of the easy financing options in the week 1. The low ASP section is expected to grow in the following days. Redseer further said that 55 percent of customers who had shopped had plans to shop again. Among them, 50 percent plans on fashion shopping, more than 25 percent has plans to shop on low ASP sections such as beauty, personal care, home and living.
Flipkart’s “The Big Billion Days” (TBBD) 2023, which was from October 8-15, registered 1.4 billion customers. Amazon India”s Great Indian Festival (GIF), which also began on the same day as Flipkart’s, October 8, 2023, had a record of 95 million consumer’s visit in 48 hours. However, the Amazon’s sale is a month-long event. The SoftBank-backed e-commerce store Meesho, with its “Meesho Mega Blockbuster Sale”, which began on October 6-15 2023, recorded 16 million new app installations during this time.
This festive season, e-commerce platforms are expected to reap sales worth Rs 90,000 crore, which would be 18-20 percent more than last year, an earlier report by Redseer had said. This estimate has been reached, expecting, close to 140 million shoppers, who would be making transactions online, at least for a single time during this season.
