Led by Amazon and Flipkart, e-tailers in India achieved a record $3 billion (nearly Rs 19,000 crore) of Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) in the first six days of the festive sale. Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon dominated 90 percent of the market share during the six-day sale event held between September 29 and October 4, said Bengaluru-based research firm RedSeer Consultancy. Given the momentum seen in the first edition of the festive sale, the entire month of October is expected to generate up to $6 billion (Rs 39,000 crore) in online sales, almost shared by Amazon and Flipkart.
Flipkart continued to lead the festive sales in GMV terms, with 60-62 percent standalone Gross GMV share during the sale event, and nearly 63 percent share, if other group entities (Myntra and Jabong) are also included, said the report. “Strong performance across categories including mobiles was the key reason for Flipkart leadership. This was, in turn, enabled by strong value prices, high EMIs adoption and diverse selection across categories, all marketed aggressively to reach customers widely,” the RedSeer report said.
According to the report, the GMV growth for Amazon India was 22 percent (YoY). However, its volume growth rate was more than 30 percent (YoY). “The first wave of the festive sale event has seen record GMV of almost $3 billion despite the challenging macro environment, indicating that consumer sentiment on online shopping remains bullish,” said Anil Kumar, Founder, and CEO, RedSeer Consulting.
Amazon India, however, refuted the report.
“We cannot comment on speculative reports that lack robust and credible methodology,” a company spokesperson told IANS.
“During the Great Indian Festival (September 28-October 4), Amazon led with the highest share of transacting customers at 51 percent, order share of 42 percent and value share of 45 percent across all marketplaces in India, according to Nielsen’s E-Analytics empaneled read of 190k digital users across 50+ cities,” the spokesperson added.
According to the Redseer report, the year-on-year (YoY) growth during the festive sale period was 30 percent, with significant share coming from customers in tier II and III cities. Mobile was the category leader, contributing to over 55 percent of GMV in festive days. Consumers delayed their mobile purchases for the festive sale season, indicating the strong “value shopping” proposition of festive days.
“The larger push has come from Bharat customers, migrating to online shopping driven by the strong value provided from the online retailers across categories including mobiles, which have shown a strong surge during sale event despite having a relatively slow growing first half of 2019,” Kumar noted.
Earlier, two big e-commerce players Amazon India and Flipkart announced record transactions on their respective platforms. They also announced addition of new customers, especially from the tier II and III cities during the sale period. Consumer electronics, smartphones, fashion and large appliances were among the top gainers as the demand surged from smaller cities and towns this year — indicating that the consumer spending has only increased in the country despite slowdown fears.
Amazon India said it received orders from 99.4 percent of pincodes while over 65,000 sellers from more than 500 cities received orders in just five days of the first edition of its “Great Indian Festival” sale. Nearly 15,000 sellers more than doubled the sales while millionaire sellers including “crorepati” sellers exceeded 21,000 sellers in the sale.
Aiming to bring the next 200 million consumers to the e-commerce fold, Flipkart said that “The Big Billion Days” sale witnessed almost 50 percent growth in the number of new customers compared to last year, with 70 billion views in six days of the sale. Clocking record sales powered by shoppers and sellers from tier 2 cities and beyond, more than 50 percent of Flipkart Plus shoppers were from smaller cities and towns, while sales from tier 3 cities grew by 100 percent (YoY).
(Written with IANS inputs)
