E-com players log $4.6 bn sales in India festive week, Flipkart leads

New Delhi, Oct 14 The e-commerce players registered a whopping $4.6 billion (nearly Rs 32,000 crore) sales during the first week of the festive season -- a 23 per cent on-year growth -- driven by mobiles and fashion products, a new report showed on Thursday.

Flipkart Group emerged as the leader during the festive week sales, with 64 per cent market share, followed by Amazon with 28 per cent market share.

Smartphones worth Rs 68 crore were purchased every hour across the platforms during the October 2-10 sale period, according to data provided by homegrown market research firm RedSeer.

RedSeer had forecast a sale of $4.8 billion (over Rs 36,000 crore) in the first week of the festive sale.

"Constructs were built carefully by the platforms through BNPL (buy now pay later) schemes and bank tie-ups, as well as seller-driven discounts to serve up the most competitive prices of top leading brands and serve the aspiring customer," said Ujjwal Chaudhry, associate partner at RedSeer Consulting.

The overall online shopper base grew by 20 per cent compared to last year, with tier II population contributing to 61 per cent of all shoppers.

The overall gross merchandise value (GMV) per shopper has grown by 1.04X.

After a poor showing during last year, customer demand for fashion was back this year with affordable models and new platforms targeting tier II users.

Online fashion platform Meesho has been able to garner a 39 per cent share with their affordable offerings targeting a typical Indian household looking for good-value products.

However, the demand for other categories like home furnishings and decor were subdued during the festive week.

With 40 million shoppers coming from tier 2 cities and beyond, the festive sales were dictated by affordability schemes.

With affordability schemes and an aspiring customer base, the GMV per user went from Rs 4,980 in 2020 to Rs 5,034 in 2021, the report said.