A slurry of activities including the general elections, cricketing extravaganza, summer vacations and an increase in visa-free tourist destinations in the first half of 2024, led to a rise in consumer spending on travel, registering a 73 per cent growth in the first five months of 2024 as compared to the same period last year, according to Simpl’s Checkout Scan. The spends were majorly done on travel service providers including MakeMyTrip, EaseMyTrip, Redbus, Goibibo, AbhiBus, Oyo, ZoomCar, among others.
Other categories witnessing growth in consumer spending were food and beverage, services and grocery which posted 68, 53 and 35 per cent growth respectively.
As per the report, this growth was led by consumers from Ahmedabad, Pune, Hyderabad along with the top metros with the emerging metros registering a growth in consumer spending by 77, 74 and 64 per cent respectively during the first five months of this year. While metros led a majority of the consumer spending, smaller cities including Thiruvananthapuram, Indore, Guwahati, Vijayawada and Lucknow posted 84, 47 and 45 per cent growth in spending across merchants such as Blinkit, MakeMyTrip, Zomato, Myntra, Bigbasket, Dunzo, Meesho and Nykaa.
Interestingly, consumers in the age group of 51-60 and over 60 years commonly referred to as Gen X and Boomers posted 89 and 87 per cent growth respectively, highlighting the increasing travel by middle-aged and retirees on the back of growing convenience and affordability.
Nitya Sharma, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Simpl, said that the first half of 2024 has been a blockbuster year for the internet commerce economy where union elections, cricketing events and tourist destinations made visa-free played a pivotal role in significantly driving consumer spending online. “This is reflective in categories such as travel, food and beverages, services and grocery that have posted robust growth in consumer spending. Convenience is becoming a real differentiator in e-commerce today after selection and affordability,” Sharma added.
Furthermore, the single day highest order in the last five months of 2024 stood at Rs 39,000 against Rs 25,000 in the first five months of 2023 while the cumulative spend by a single consumer in 2024 till date stands at Rs 9.5 lakh.
