Chennai: The festive week sales by e-commerce companies touched $4.6 billion, with mobile phones worth Rs 68 crore selling every hour across different platforms.
The first week of online festive sales from October 2 to 10 saw 23 per cent sales growth in 2021 with different e-commerce players selling $4.6 billion or Rs 32,000 crore of goods online, according to RedSeer Consulting. Last year, the total sales stood at $3.7 billion or Rs 26,000 crore.
Earlier, Bengaluru-based RedSeer had forecast a sale of $4.8 billion in the first week of the festive sale.
The online shopper base grew by 20 per cent to 62 million compared to 52 million last year with tier-II-plus cities contributing 60 per cent of all shoppers. Around 40 million shoppers came from tier-II-plus cities. The gross merchandise value (GMV) or the average sales per shopper grew to Rs 5,034 in 2021 from Rs 4,980 in 2020.
Mobiles, electronics and appliances remained strong this year driven by new launches, EMI options and smart upgrade plans of brands and mid and high-end brands became more attainable due to the pay options. Mobiles accounted for 46 per cent of the total sales or about Rs 14,720 crore. Other electronics and appliances grabbed a share of 27 per cent or Rs 8,640 crore.
Fashion made a comeback with 17 per cent share of the sales against 14 per cent last year. Fashion saw resurgence on the back of a largely vaccinated population, which is looking for a wardrobe refresh for social gatherings and vacations.
Horizontals like Ama-zon and Flipkart contributed to 70 per cent of the overall fashion sales. Of the remaining market, a new player Meesho could garner 39 per cent share with their affordable offerings targeting households looking for good value products.
"The festive season this year has been one that is driven by a larger theme of affordability. Cons-tructs were built carefully by the platforms through buy now pay later schemes and bank tie-ups as well as seller driven discounts,” said Ujjwal Chaudhry, associate partner at RedSeer Consulting.
