In fact, a fifth of November’s total GMV came from the Black Friday Sale weekend alone according to a GoKwik survey of 10,000 brands on their network. The surge comes at a time when demand for discretionary products across categories has been witnessing low single-digit sales over the past few quarters.
According to ecommerce enabler, this was largely driven by tier 1 cities that saw a 33% GMV uplift during the black Friday weekend. Beauty and personal care products stood out as the top-performing category, registering a 2 times increase in GMV compared to the weekend prior. This could be attributed to the high discounts that are usually offered in this category.
Footwear followed with a 53% growth, while fashion and electronics saw a 23% uplift each. The average order value (AOV) also increased by 8%. This was mainly driven by the beauty category, which saw a 26% increase in AOV.
“Black Friday this year has become a significant event for eCommerce brands in India, catching up in scale and enthusiasm to its US counterpart”, said Chirag Taneja, cofounder and chief executive officer (CEO), GoKwik. “November end in India is a great time to run a sale event as it follows the slump in consumption post the major festive season ending in Diwali. Brands have understood the shopper sentiment, the kinds of deals that motivate them, and have successfully revived demand through this sale period. In the next few years, we have the potential to become the second largest market for black Friday sale period after the US”, added Chirag.
Interestingly, credit-based payment methods that had seen an increase in adoption during the Diwali sale period saw a dip of 2.5% in the Black Friday sale period. COD GMV again saw an increase from 46% in the Diwali sale period to 65% in the Black Friday sale period. UPI continued to be the second most preferred mode of payment at 28.13%.
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Shoppers continued to buy beauty products on COD during the black friday sale period, a trend unchanged from the diwali sale period. However, fashion, which saw high adoption of credit based payments during the diwali sale period, recorded majority orders on COD in the black friday sale weekend.“The preference for COD is etched deep in shopper psyche, while new payment methods emerge and shoppers show interest in adopting those, COD is still extremely prevalent and will continue to be for the foreseeable future,” said Taneja.
Mega cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai, and Pune, led the charge during the Black Friday weekend, collectively recording a 60% increase in GMV. These cities, with their exposure to global pop culture and commerce, have embraced the Black Friday phenomenon more integrally.
GoKwik houses over 10000 eCommerce brands in its network including Lenskart, Mamaearth, Perfora, Neemans, Man Matters, Shoppers Stop, etc, ranging from fashion, beauty, health and nutrition, electronics and other key categories of the online shopping space. The company recently acquired Return Prime, a Shopify app to manage returns for eCommerce brands globally.
