October is typically that time of the year when Indians shop their heart out, from apparels to cosmetics and home decor. E-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Nykaa rolled out their festive sale strategies with unexpected offers and discounts.
Now that the festive season sale has come near to an end, these e-commerce giants have not only grown in terms of revenue but have also expanded their customer reach. For instance, Myntra’s Big Fashion Festival (BFF) concluded by registering 627 million customer visits. The platform saw strong festive shopping sentiment across the country, which is expected to continue in the weeks to come.
According to Myntra, it onboarded over 1.5 million new customers during this period with over 80% traffic from non-metros. Meanwhile, its GenZ-focused section, FWD, approximately grew 2.5X over BAU (business as usual) in new customers joining the platform.
Walmart-backed Flipkart has claimed to have recorded an overall 7.2 billion visits including 282 million unique visitors. While Amazon witnessed 140 crore customer visits with over 85% from non-metro cities. In addition to this, Nykaaland 2.0, co-produced by Nykaa and BookMyShow Live, over three vibrant days witnessed a footfall of over 25,000.
While customers from across the country relied on e-commerce for a plethora of shopping needs, Flipkart highlighted that the East region of India showcased a 14.86% rise in unique visitors and a 12% growth in customers compared to last year.
What’s in-demand?
The top shopping trends observed on Flipkart this festive season shows how customers have been steering towards categories such as Fashion, Electronics (especially laptops and tablets), Home Essentials, Appliances, Beauty and General Merchandise. In fact, Amazon this year offered customers access to more than 25,000 new launches across categories such as laptops, TVs, smartphones, fashion and beauty, home décor, appliances, furniture and groceries.
Budget 5G smart phones on Amazon saw a massive boost in with more than 1/3rd volume share driven by the wide selection from top brands like Realme, iQOO, Xiaomi etc.
For Myntra, categories such as women’s ethnic wear, men’s occasion & casual wear and sports footwear saw increased demand while categories including beauty & personal care, watches and wearables and home furnishings clocked 1.5X growth in demand over the last year. Over 100 D2C brands on Myntra experienced more than 100% YoY growth.
Additionally, the D2C Beauty and Personal Care segment on Myntra, which was launched a couple of months before the festive season has clocked 110% growth over BAU. Amazon too spotted the similar trend with homegrown/ D2C brands witnessed up to 700% YoY spike in categories such as beauty, shoes, apparel, luggage and more. Fashion & Beauty Gen Z portfolio grew 175% YoY while precious jewellery and lab grown diamonds saw over 300% growth when compared BAU.
Apart from this, premiumization is another notable trend. As per the report from Flipkart, the shift towards premiumization can be seen with the number of customers opting for top brands, which has witnessed a rise in demand of 17% YoY. Premium and mid-premium Android smartphones saw a growth with high interest in the AI-led features.
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Seller’s side
Sellers on Flipkart witnessed 40-50% YoY growth this festive period with increased participation, better offerings and significant boost in sales compared to last year. Similarly, Amazon saw over 70% increase in seller surpassing Rs 1 crore in sales as compared to last year. Sellers from India’s heartland took centre stage with about 70% of participating sellers hailing from tier 2 and below cities.
Interestingly, small and medium businesses including women entrepreneurs, weavers and artisans sold over 1,000 units every minute on Amazon. While Flipkart claims to have showcased over 25,000 unique handicraft products featuring contributions from hundreds of artisans, weavers, government bodies, NGOs, LGBTQ+ communities, rural entrepreneurs and women entrepreneurs. In fact, such sellers saw a 1.6X spike in their growth, a 16% increase during the sale period.
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Furthermore, shopping was made more affordable and convenient for customers with bank discounts and unique rewards. Facilitating easy access to credit, 1 in 4 customers leveraged the attractive EMI offers to make their purchase, with 80% of them being No Cost EMI (NCEMI) transactions.
Amazon Pay witnessed more than 25% growth in EMI and 45% growth in No Cost EMI transactions (YoY), respectively. With Credit Card emerging as the most preferred payment option, Myntra witnessed 9X growth in credit card payments over BAU while the Myntra-Kotak co-branded credit card recorded 8X growth in transactions on the opening day, over last year. In fact, the platform also introduced other payment options like Bajaj Finserv No-Cost EMI and Simpl Pay-in-3 parts and observed a 4.5X growth for the EMI instrument compared to BAU.