While electronics remain a perennial hotseller—and this year is no exception—lifestyle products such as beauty and personal care, fashion, home, and general merchandise are fast catching up on e-commerce platforms during the festive sale season.
Flipkart-owned fashion e-commerce firm Myntra expects 8 million customers to shop during its ‘Big Fashion Festival’, which started on October 7 and will go on till October 14. Tata CLiQ Palette, the Tata Group’s new beauty vertical, too, expects ‘a triple-digit growth’ during this festive season compared to the last big sale event that took place in May. Tata CLiQ’s ‘10/10’ sale went live on Friday.
“Categories like fashion apparel and footwear will continue to be in high demand. We also expect ethnic wear, accessories and jewellery to do well. The home decor section on the platform has a wide assortment of products from various premium brands, and we aim to capture the high demand cycle during the festive season to grow this category further,” said Tata CLiQ CEO Gopal Asthana.
Saurabh Srivastava, vice-president of Amazon Fashion India, agreed. “While the electronics category sees a lot of spike during this period, so does fashion and beauty, as people buy new clothes, jewellery, and such items,” he said.
The trend has also been validated by consulting firm Redseer, which said in a recent report that this year’s festive season sales will see increasing contributions from higher margin categories, such as beauty and personal care, fashion, home, and general merchandise, among others. “Over the past several quarters, we are seeing enhanced GMV (gross merchandise value) contributions from categories beyond electronics. While electronics sell a lot in the festive period, looking at the bigger picture and comparing the festive sale periods over the past several years, there is a clear trend of category diversification,” said Mrigank Gutgutia, partner at Redseer Strategy Consultants.
E-com company Flipkart, however, declined to comment on the expectations regarding its Big Billion Days Sale, which is taking place from October 8 to 15.
In a BSE filing on Friday, Nykaa, which sells beauty, wellness and fashion products through its website, mobile app and over 100 physical stores, said that its beauty and personal care segment saw a 20% rise year-on-year in net sales in the second quarter of FY24. “The beauty vertical continues to expand through the ecommerce business, physical store expansion and growth of our owned brands,” the company said, as per reports.
Similarly, SoftBank-backed Meesho expects over 3x growth this festive season. “The festive season has started on a high growth trajectory for Meesho with the recently concluded sale events for Onam, Raksha Bandhan and Ganesh Chaturthi. We are thrilled to witness a remarkable surge in demand during the pre-festive sales and recorded close to 1 crore orders during the four sale days, with ~75% of orders coming from tier II+ markets,” said Megha Agarwal, CXO, growth, Meesho. The company is set to launch another round of sale around the end of October, she added.
Meanwhile, in a first for e-commerce in India, Amazon is conducting an on-ground event, called Amazon Xperience Arena, across several cities, including Delhi, Jaipur, Pune and Kolkata, around its festive season sale. The arena allows customers to experience their favourite brands and products while participating in fun engagements.
Speaking with FE at the event, Amazon Fashion India’s Srivastava said: “As I manage the fashion and beauty business, I can tell you we are really happy with how the things are panning out (for this category) throughout the year. So, throughout the year, we have seen a very strong traction for fashion and beauty, and this is only going to get further accelerated.”
Global e-marketplace Etsy, which focuses on handmade or vintage items and craft supplies, too, has an event to showcase festive offers in the national capital on October 12.
Meanwhile, e-com platforms are eyeing tier II, III cities for further growth this festive season. “While metros and tier I cities are matured markets, the tier II and III cities are the source of growth for us,” Amazon Fashion India’s Srivastava said, adding that another trend being witnessed is the premiumisation, where appetite is rising for premium and luxury products, especially with the lack of the same in physical stores there.
Tata CLiQ’s Asthana added: “This festive season, the platform is targeting 50-60% growth in revenue over the past year and will continue to strengthen the customer base in tier II and tier III markets, with significant bets across key categories like ‘Indiluxe’ fashion, beauty, watches and home.”
Flipkart-owned Shopsy, which held The Grand Shopsy Mela from September 12 to 17, saw a 2.4x surge in daily demand, and customers grew 2x with 60% of customers coming from tier III+ cities, as per the company. “As the festive season kicks off, we are overwhelmed by the response to the third edition of the Grand Shopsy Mela by shoppers across the country, especially from tier II+ regions,” said Kapil Thirani, head of Shopsy.
According to a Redseer report, the gross merchandise value (GMV) for the festive season is estimated to reach Rs 90,000 crore, marking an 18-20% compared to last year’s sales. Sellers expect at least 15% online sales growth compared to last year, it added.
According to a report by Axis My India, 23% of people expect a rise in shopping activities during the sales period. Up to 44% of shoppers plan to spend more compared to last year.