The Black Friday sales saw an order surge of 36.37 per cent by D2C brands in comparison to the weekend prior, said GoKwik. According to the company data, the GMV also saw a 57.34 per cent increase compared to the weekend prior to the black friday sale weekend. Last year too, it added, brands in the GoKwik network had seen a GMV uplift of up to 60 per cent – a trend that has been continuing this year as well.
“After the busy festive sale period that starts from Rakshabandhan, and continues to Dussehra all the way to Diwali, brands often witness a slump. However, post that period, comes the Black Friday Sale Period which has increasingly gained prominence in India in the recent years. This year too, the popularity of the Black Friday Sale has continued to make its mark,” the company said in a statement.
“For the last two consecutive years, brands in our network have seen a remarkable surge in orders during this Black Friday sale period. This goes to show that the popularity of Black Friday has seeped into the Indian peninsula, and shoppers are keenly seeking good deals. The online market continues to deepen and the trend will continue all the way to Christmas this year. We are also seeing many first time shoppers entering the market. As a result, tier-II, tier-III have been at the forefront of this surge in orders and the trend will continue next year as more of remote Bharat continues to shop online,” said Chirag Taneja, Co-Founder and CEO, GoKwik.
During the festive sale period, GoKwik said that the categories that outshined all were fashion, followed by BPC but electronics saw a comparatively marginal surge. “In the Black Friday sale weekend however, Beauty and Cosmetics emerged as winners and saw a 2.5X surge in orders in the Black Friday Sale weekend compared to the previous weekend. This was followed by Home Decor (94.93 per cent), electronics 62.5 (per cent), health and nutrition 61.04 (per cent) and fashion 41.12 (per cent),” it said.
In terms of the mode of payment, while COD orders grew by 39.93 per cent, RTO reduced by almost 10 per cent and this trend was seen across all categories including beauty and personal care, fashion, electronics, home decor, and healthcare, as they all saw a dip in RTO rate. “This can be attributed to the solutions offered by GoKwik through its network data intelligence committed to curb RTO losses while increasing COD GMV for the D2C brands,” the company said.
Average order value also increased by 15.38 per cent in the Black Friday sale weekend compared to the weekend prior to that. This, it said, can be attributed to higher order volumes from electronics and home decor categories this time around. The Black Friday sale witnessed around 69 per cent of orders from tier-II and tier-III towns, similar to last year. In terms of amount spent, tier-III cities were at par with tier-I cities witnessing an increase in AOV by 18 per cent respectively.
Talking about the back-end upgrades at GoKwik for the festive and Black Friday sale, Chirag Taneja said, “We have placed solutions in place to ensure a smooth checkout flow for shoppers during peak sale traffic. We are also offering exclusive discounts unique to shoppers in the GoKwik network to ensure their shopping experience is not just convenient but also rewarding. Moreover, as India continues to be predominantly cash-driven, we are ensuring our network data intelligence helps brands contain the problem of returns before delivery, especially during the sale period when such orders tend to surge. This way, brands can ensure they make the most of these sale periods and grow their profit margins.”
In terms of cities, the most surge in order volumes came from UP, Karnataka and Maharashtra during the festive sale period. “This time the trend is a little different, with Bihar emerging as the top contributor to Black Friday Sale (74 per cent uplift), followed by Punjab, Meghalaya (70 per cent uplift each), Telangana (65 per cent), Delhi (65 per cent) and Gujarat (64 per cent).