E-commerce sales boom this festive month

The share of online smartphone sales has increased exponentially in this Diwali season along with other electronic items such as televisions, air-conditioners as well as washing machines. Fashion, as a category, is also expected to see a recovery this holiday season – in line with the outward movement of consumers.

October Month & The Sparkling Navratri

The e-commerce shares in the sales pie hit a new high in the first two days of this month, market observers and companies say, in a few categories, including smartphones, consumer electronics, clothing and daily necessities, which are growing faster than last year.

The share of online smartphone sales has increased to about 60% in the first two days of Navratri-Dussehra from about 55%, the previous market tracker estimates Counterpoint Research has shown. Televisions have grown to 40% from 31% over the same period last year, while refrigerators, air-conditioners, washing machines and kitchen equipment increased to 9-10% from 6-8%, industry officials said.

With the advent of e-commerce growth, fewer customers from third-party cities have bought more expensive products online, said Panasonic India chairman Manish Sharma.

“Access, which is in line with Covid-19’s accelerated behavioral changes, is gaining momentum. For example, AC sales online this month have more than doubled last year, led by leading models,” said Sharma.

Festive Bells, E-Commerce & Devoted Shoppers

Two major e-commerce markets, Amazon India and Flipkart-owned Walmart, have launched their holiday season sales events from October 2 and have been running longer in this regard than in previous years. They also offer top discounts within the first 2-3 days.

Even Tata Cliq, Reliance Digital and Croma have offered promotional offers in their online stores and apps, which has led to huge purchases through e-commerce organizations.

Market research company RedSeer Consulting said the online consumer base grew by about 20% this holiday season compared to last year, tier II markets accounted for about 61% of all consumers.

RedSeer estimates that almost Rs 68 crore smartphones were sold every hour on online platforms during the holiday sales season.

The rapid sale of e-commerce channels is due to falling prices in the e-commerce market, where consumers receive discounts of about Rs 2,000-3,000, said Avneet Singh Marwah, chief executive of SPPL, which sells the Thomson brand, Kodak and Blaupunkt. for online TV shows.

According to RedSeer, smartphones, TVs and electronic devices together form the largest online retail segment, accounting for 73% of gross merchandise value (GMV) across all platforms during the first week of sales online.

Daily Necessities, fashion

Fast-moving consumer goods and clothing companies also said the first two weeks saw a significant increase in online shopping, led by higher discounts.

During this holiday season, many e-commerce markets are paying attention to all categories equally, including the grocery store, instead of the usual focus on electrical and clothing items, says Krishnarao Buddha, head of the senior division at Parle Products.

“We have seen record growth in online channels, their contribution growing by 300 basis points compared to last year, which is largely driven by offers and deals. In fact, we are seeing an increase in orders for their sales events in December, which shows that online growth is steady,” said Buddha.

For consumer goods manufacturers, the share of online channels in all consumer goods has tripled since March last year, as closures have led to thousands of consumers clicking online to find what is important and what is not.

First Half of 2020 – The Retail Apocalypse!

Currently, e-commerce accounts for 6-10% of their total sales, compared to 3-5% last year.

“The growth of online commerce continues to be strong and in preparation for the Diwali festival season, which is in line with demand from major annual e-commerce tent events, has seen a steady decline in consumers over the past few weeks,” said Sanjeev Mohanty, managing director, South Asia – Middle. East and Africa, Levi Strauss & Co.

The online fashion store Myntra, owned by Flipkart, said its event attracted five million customers, placing eight million orders in categories.

“More than 2,600 over 300 brand stores in more than 40 cities participated in the Big Fashion Festival which offers more than 1.2 lakh styles in an eight-day event,” said Amar Nagaram, CEO, Myntra.

The fashion retail segment is expected to grow by 15-17% year-on-year between July 2021 and March 2022, which translates to an annual increase of 23-25% on FY22, said the credit rating agency ICRA in a recent report.

The headline ‘The Festive Season Pulse 2021,’ also states that 91% of Indian consumers are planning to shop during the upcoming holidays and six out of ten are interested in learning about new products during the holiday season sales.To boost this rise in consumer sentiment, the e-commerce segment is ready to launch its holiday blitz and is preparing to incorporate major season discounts in a few weeks.

In this 30-day period leading up to the holiday season, Myntra’s leading fashion e-commerce platform has organized a ‘Big Fashion Festival,’ which will be followed by the Myntra Diwali Sale, which focuses on ethnic dresses. On the technical side, the company aims to introduce a loyalty program led by gamification as it develops its Bewakoof nation with a new and special introduction of team members.

Second Half of 2020

Commenting on the platform’s ongoing programs, Prabhkiran Singh, CEO & Founder, Beewakoof.com said, “After the epidemic, we have seen strong recovery and growth in certain areas such as leisure and leisure clothing due to home-based customers and the epidemic is declining., bags, accessories, etc. for the upcoming holiday season.

At the industry level, Arora told us that e-commerce players benefit from doing things differently to build individual knowledge on the platform and AI-enabled chatbots used by online retailers to bring customers closer to the offline sales experience. of engagement.

Sharing the OLX program, Arora added, “This holiday season we plan to use new solutions by releasing the retail journey.

Fashion, as a category, is expected to see a recovery this holiday season – in line with the outward movement of consumers and fashion / office wear, RedSeer said.

The report found that retailers are very strong in sales this year and are looking to recoup losses incurred due to Covid.

About 80 percent of retailers surveyed said that holiday sales would play a major role in reversing Covid losses.

“We believe that the sale of online events for 2021 will continue to lead to greater digital usage based on macro usage and sense of use after the second wave of COVID has passed. Eighty percent of them believe that holiday sales will help them promote strong sales growth and recoup losses during Covid, “said Jjwal Chaudhry – RedSeer Consulting Associate Partner, he said.

Continuing with the above, RedSeer expects a strong 30 percent growth in the holiday sales week by 2021 to reach $ 4.8 billion in the largest GMV with growth in all categories, setting a solid e-commerce platform for 2021, he added.

Wrapping Up

The E-commerce industry has had a direct impact on small, medium and micro enterprises (MSME) in India by providing funding mechanisms, technology and training and has had a positive impact on other industries. India’s trading industry has been on the rise and is expected to overtake the US to become the world’s second-largest E-commerce market by 2034. The technology has provided new capabilities such as digital payments, location planning, customer-driven customer analysis. and digital advertising is likely to support the growth of the industry. Growth in the E-commerce sector will also increase employment opportunities, increase foreign exchange earnings, increase tax collection by former inspectors, and provide better products and services to customers in the long run. The increase in smartphone use is expected to increase by 84% to reach 859 million by 2022.

The E-retail market is expected to continue its strong growth – registering a CAGR of more than 35% to reach Rs. 1.8 trillion (US $ 25.75 billion) in FY20. Over the next five years, India’s electronics industry is expected to exceed ~ 300-350 million consumers, pushing the Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) online to $ 100-120 billion by 2025.

CREDITS-

CONTENT- Harsha

INFOGRAPHICS – Aanchal