As festival season in the country inches closer, various online shopping platforms are gearing up for users’ shopping spree and for a good reason. The upcoming festivals will bring about Rs 45,000 crore worth gross sales for various e-tailers combined as online shopping rage intensifies, according to a recent report. In fact, within a week’s duration of 29 September to 4 October, the overall e-tailing sales are expected to go upto Rs 24,000 crore which is an over 60% growth in value on-year, according to a consulting firm RedSeer. Due to high sale volumes expected in these days thanks to kicking off of Navratri days, four of India’s biggest online commerce platforms viz Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm Mall and Snapdeal are rolling their discounted days together and will clash to get a bigger share of users.
What will drive growth for e-tailers?
While mobile phones are generally the dominant category for e-tailers, this year, consumer electronics in general will find bigger demand, according to RedSeer estimates. Further, the fashion category is also going to lever sales for while demand for new categories such as furniture is also likely to witness strong growth. However, the average value per order is likely to see a decline as mobile phones euphoria wanes. According to RedSeer estimates, the average value per order will drop by 10% from last year.
Also, the majority of the shoppers will be from tier 2+ cities. Apart from the usual sales tactics (discounts, fast delivery etc), rising access to vernacular interface and wider credit availability will also be a major push to the sales.
Over 3 crore users are expected to participate in this year’s festive sales and while several sectors have been witnessing lower sales due to the ongoing economic slowdown in the country, the same is widely anticipated to take a turn for good during festivities.