Festive Sales: Ecommerce Firms Record $5.7 Bn GMV In Week 1

Building on the momentum of the ongoing festive season, ecommerce platforms clocked sales worth $5.7 Bn (approximately INR 40,000 Cr) during the first week of the ongoing festive sale. 

The estimates were made as part of a report released by consultancy firm Redseer and pertained to the period between September 22-30. 

Daily gross merchandise value (GMV) during the period was nearly four times compared to business as usual (BAU) days. The first week of the festive sales saw total GMV soar nearly 27% year-on-year (YoY) compared to the same period last year. 

Flipkart took the pole position, accounting for 62% of the total GMV recorded during the first week of the sales. Amazon stood at the second position with nearly 26% share of the total volume. Other players such as Meesho and Reliance JioMart failed to make a dent and formed a meagre 12% of the total gross volume recorded in the period. 

Mobile phone sales continued to drive the sales, accounting for 41% of the total sales volume. Ecommerce portals sold an average of 56,000 phones per hour, according to the report. The GMV generated by phone sales was nearly 7X compared to the run of the mill normal day sales.

On the other hand, the fashion segment recorded the highest growth, contributing 20% of the overall GMV in the first week of the sales. The total GMV generated by the segment grew 48% YoY versus the first week of the festive sales in CY21, largely due to higher spending by customers on apparel and accessories. 

Compared with BAU sales, gross sales volume for the electronics and large appliances segment surged nearly 5X, while the fashion segment nearly tripled its numbers in the first week of festive sales. Other categories also doubled its GMV during the period under review compared to normal day figures. 

The number of shoppers also soared to 75-80 Mn in the period under review, up 24% YoY compared to the first week of festive sales in CY21. Interestingly, a majority of these shoppers emerged from Tier II cities and beyond, while average spending per online shopper increased marginally by 3% during this festive week.

What also emerged from the data was that Meesho dethroned ecommerce giant Amazon as the second biggest player during the week in terms of the number of orders placed. This was largely attributed to higher demand from Tier-II cities and its strong positioning in the fashion segment

Meanwhile, Flipkart and Amazon leveraged their in-house logistics arms to deliver a majority of the orders. Despite that, close to 40-50% of the total orders were fulfilled through third party logistics (3PL) players. Meesho led the charts here, delivering 100% of its orders via 3PL firms. 

The Redseer report also noted that mobile phone and white goods sales will continue to drive the GMV growth going forward into the festive season. It also said that increased spending on fashion, beauty, and home and living categories is projected to increase order volumes henceforth.

According to an Inc42 report, India’s total addressable ecommerce opportunity is expected to soar to $400 Bn by 2030.