New Delhi: Amid the pandemic last year, Indian shoppers helped e-commerce platforms clock $7.4 billion (about Rs 52,000 crore) in total gross merchandise value (GMV) during the festive months (October-December). This year, as retail shops reopen and Covid cases slow down, Indians are expected to buy goods worth a whopping $9 billion (Rs 64,000 crore) across online platforms.
According to RedSeer, the growth this year will be mostly driven by the accelerated online adoption, which has been witnessed as an effect of Covid.
Nearly 80 per cent of the sellers agree that festive sales will play a key role in recovery from Covid losses, while 70 per cent agreed that the bigger online players have been supportive and positive which led up to the sales event.
The overall online GMV this year is expected to touch $49-52 billion which is around 37 per cent growth from last year, primarily driven by strong consumer funnel expansion and the high adoption of online shopping post-Covid across the categories.
The e-commerce players registered a whopping $4.6 billion (nearly Rs 32,000 crore) sales during the first week of the festive season — a 23 per cent on-year growth — driven by mobiles and fashion products.
Flipkart Group emerged as the leader during the festive week sales, with 64 per cent market share, followed by Amazon with 28 per cent market share.
Smartphones worth Rs 68 crore were purchased every hour across the platforms during the October 2-10 sale period, according to data provided by homegrown market research firm RedSeer.
RedSeer had forecast a sale of $4.8 billion (over Rs 36,000 crore) in the first week of the festive sale.
“Constructs were built carefully by the platforms through BNPL (buy now pay later) schemes and bank tie-ups, as well as seller-driven discounts to serve up the most competitive prices of top leading brands and serve the aspiring customer,” said Ujjwal Chaudhry, associate partner at RedSeer Consulting.
The overall online shopper base grew by 20 per cent compared to last year, with tier II population contributing to 61 per cent of all shoppers.
The overall gross merchandise value (GMV) per shopper has grown by 1.04X.
