SUMMARY
AJIO said that over 5,00,000 first-time shoppers during its summer sale came from non-metro cities
The company claimed that over 1.5 Mn customers shopped more than once during the sale and overall order volume grew 40% over the previous summer edition
The rise in customers from Tier II & III cities is in line with the trend of increasing popularity of ecommerce platforms in smaller towns of the country
Reliance Retail’s ecommerce venture AJIO on Monday (June 19) said it saw a 40% year-on-year increase in volume during its 18-day summer sale, Big Bold Sale, and received 50% of orders from Tier II & III cities.
“The AJIO BBS ’23 edition witnessed a significant increase in shopping sentiment from the smaller cities and towns. 50% of the total orders were from the Tier 2 and 3 markets, highlighting AJIO’s growing regional reach and popularity in these markets. Notably, over 500,000 first-time shoppers came from non-metros,” the company said in a statement.
As per the statement, order volume spiked 40% over the previous summer edition of the sale.
Commenting on the sales, AJIO CEO Vineeth Nair said, “It is encouraging to see the growing uptick from the non-metros during the shopping season, with almost half of the total orders coming from smaller towns and cities of the country. With over 1.5 Mn customers shopping more than once during the sale and 40% growth in overall order volume over last summer edition, we delighted customers with an unparalleled shopping experience.
AJIO competes with the likes of Myntra, Nykaa Fashion and Tata Cliq in the fast-growing and highly competitive online fashion segment in the country. The Reliance Group company has also been taking many measures to stand out from its competitors. As part of this, it partnered Bollywood actor Shraddha Kapoor to promote the summer sale, which went live on June 1.
While announcing its Q4 results, Reliance said that AJIO now gets about two-thirds of its orders from Tier III and beyond towns. It also said that the ecommerce marketplace expanded its merchant partner base to over 3,500 towns and saw over 3.5X year-on-year revenue growth.
With increasing access to smartphones and improving digital connectivity, fashion ecommerce companies have been seeing a strong growth in smaller cities and towns.
According to a report by Unicommerce, ecommerce order volumes in the country grew 36.8% in 2022 from 2021 despite the strong revival of physical retail channels. Nearly six out of 10 orders shipped in 2022 came from buyers in Tier II cities, while orders from Tier III markets surged 65% during the year.
The total addressable market for Indian ecommerce is expected to reach $400 Bn by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 19% from 2022, according to an Inc42 report.
