Diwali sale: More Snapdeal users pick regional brands over national; small town sellers dominate

Snapdeal, which concluded its October’s five-day festive sale a day before Flipkart’s The Big Billion Days, said that 80 per cent of its Diwali shoppers chose regional and local brands over national and international brands that were preferred by the rest 20 per cent. The ratio has titled this festive season further towards regional brands from 65 per cent during last year’s season due to “increased choice and a substantial price difference,” the company said. SoftBank and Alibaba backed Snapdeal, which had announced its 2.0 version focusing on value-buying in small towns in August 2017 after merger talks with Flipkart shelved, hosted its October 16-20 Kum Mein Dum sale. The company, however, didn’t share any figures around the sale.

Close to 70 per cent of the orders, Snapdeal said, were received by sellers based in locations and non-metro commercial hubs beyond the top five metropolitan areas of India such as Jaipur, Surat, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, etc. In comparison, sellers based in Delhi NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Kolkata, Chennai, and Bengaluru made up for close to 30 per cent of the total sale orders. Similarly, over 90 per cent orders were placed by customers from non-metro cities. “4 out of every 10 orders placed on Snapdeal were by first-time users, which is consistent with the fast adoption of e-commerce by new users,” the company said in a statement. Overall, it saw customers in more than 3,700 towns shop online.

Also read: Amazon, Flipkart, others to see 34% more festive sales from year ago; Walmart’s firm to ‘maintain’ lead

“In the last few months, in the lead up to Diwali, we have actually accelerated, going deeper into the country. We have set up 25 logistics centers and hubs across India and partnering with local delivery companies and upgrading them for their expanded delivery serviceability for over 15 million more consumers this Diwali,” Kunal Bahl, Co-founder, and CEO, Snapdeal had told Financial Express Online last week in an interview.

The home products category grew by 30 per cent over last year overtaking the fashion category, “which has traditionally been the top-performer.” The increase in the home category was due to products such as food processors, kitchen tools, pressure cookers, kitchenware for storage & serving, etc. Meanwhile, online retailers are likely to generate as much as around $6.5 billion in sales during October 15 – November 15 period, as per Forrester, up 34 per cent from $4.8 billion during the year-ago period. Also, around 55-60 million online buyers are likely to participate in the festive month.