During September 26-28, online retailers clocked about 26% rise in sales compared to last year, at about Rs 26,500 crore ($3.2 billion), as per Datum Intelligence, which tracks ecommerce data. The market researcher estimates gross sales of $12 billion this festive season, a growth of about 23%, including discounts and returns.
Etail major Flipkart is on track to hit its internal targets for this festive season based on the first three days of sale. The first day of sale was only open to paid VIP and Plus members, similar to Amazon Prime. “Day 1 is usually for the high frequency buyers and the next day it opens to all…Now, with three days of trends in, their (Flipkart) sales remain on target,” said one of the executives cited above.
A chief executive of a third-party logistics firm confirmed the sales trajectory till Sunday afternoon.
The first week of festive sale where Flipkart and Amazon India run their flagship events Big Billion Days and the Great Indian Festival respectively, is the most crucial during the 45-50 day sale period. This also sets the tone for the rest of the festive season running up to Diwali.
Several brands across segments like luggage, electronics and accessories and household items told ET they are facing strong growth compared to a business-as-usual or BAU day.
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“Mobile, electronics and consumer durables, home and general merchandise accounted for 79% of the sales during this period. Fashion, grocery and beauty and personal care sales also saw a jump of two-four times -sales,” said Satish Meena, advisor at Datum Intelligence.Both Flipkart and Amazon said in separate statements that they are continuing to see robust demand across segments.
Vidit Aatrey, cofounder of Meesho, an ecommerce marketplace focused on smaller cities and towns, posted on X on Saturday saying, “By just 2 PM yesterday, we had already surpassed our previous best of highest orders placed on Day 1 previous year, and by the end of the day, that number had more than doubled.”
According to Meena, while sales of mobile, consumer durables and home segment were as per expectations, “but other categories like fashion, BPC, etc also saw good uptick… Overall the mobile category is expected to grow by 19% by value,” he added.
Typically, smartphones, large appliances, electronics and fashion are among top sales drivers during festive seasons. With quick delivery options available, the sale mix is changing across platforms.
Festive sales critical for ecommerce
Online marketplaces have been impacted by the rise of quick commerce, which is impacting their businesses in the top cities, making festive season vital, especially this year. Flipkart has scaled its own quick commerce offering, Minutes to about 80-100 dark stores, as first reported by ET on July 15. Amazon is also preparing to launch its quick commerce services soon. Both had earlier explored acquisitions to get a toehold in the quick commerce segment. Myntra said in addition to fashion, segments like beauty and personal care, sports footwear recorded over 50% rise in demand.
Brands growth
Luggage maker Uppercase, which raised $9 million from Accel last month, said on the first day, its sales swelled fivefold. “On an average in these three days, we have grown sales by 3.5 times to what our BAU day does,” founder Sudip Ghose said. “If you are offering attractive discounts on products, you are able to shore up sales…First quarter has not been great for the industry as revenge buying has come down. However, we are expecting a fantastic third quarter starting October,” Ghose said.
Mokobara, another luggage brand, is also running a sale campaign on its own platform. “Sales are good in the home and kitchen categories as we see demand across ecommerce as well as quick commerce platforms. Some platforms have executed better than others in terms of handling volumes and delivery timelines,” another executive at a direct-to-consumer brand selling across platforms, told ET.
Gaurav Nayyar, COO of Boat said sales have grown over 20% across product categories and platforms compared to last year.
Capacity constraints
However, some deliveries on Amazon India may face delays in a few cities as top vendors have been informed by the company about ‘capacity constraints at its warehouses’, meaning sellers will have to ship on their own and not from Amazon fulfilment centres. ET has seen the communication and spoken to affected vendors.
On Amazon’s warehouse issue, the note said, “FCs are currently facing capacity constraints across IN (India) networks for specific bin types. To ensure operations are not disrupted at the FCs and to avoid a bullwhip effect across IN networks , we are attaching pushouts….to the week of October 6 or later,” the note said. “September-end appointments moved to Oct 10 while October appointments moved to the end of October citing no space in FCs. So even for all top vendors, appointments were canceled. So delivery times are longer for most products,” a top seller on Amazon India said.
“New appointment slots are becoming available and our teams are working tirelessly to enable sellers to inbound more inventory into our fulfilment centers,” a spokesperson for Amazon India said.
