Amazon, Flipkart, others sold $3.1 billion worth goods in this many days of festive season’s first sale

Amazon, Flipkart, and Snapdeal led India’s e-commerce sector has already generated 77 per cent of the forecasted sales during the first 4.5 days of the first leg of festive sales. Out of the expected gross sales worth $4 billion, online retailers have already enabled the sale of goods worth $3.1 billion between October 15 and October 19, according to a RedSeer analysis. The first sale event in the series of festive season offerings is usually marked with the Great Indian Festival sale by Amazon and The Big Billion Days by Flipkart apart from similar events by other marketplaces such as Snapdeal, Paytm Mall, ShopClues, and other vertical marketplaces.

“Despite Covid and job losses, customers are still hungry for value deals not just in phones and appliances categories but for aggressive deals lined up in others as well such as fashion, furniture, grocery, and even work-from-home. So, there is a lot of customer confidence especially if they are getting a good value for the money spent. Along with this, the safety to order online in current times has led to the consumption recovery,” Mrigank Gutgutia, Director, E-commerce, RedSeer told Financial Express Online.

The growth in sales is likely to be around 50 per cent more from the festive days of 2019 even as it is on track to even surpass the $4 billion forecast. “The surpass would be marginal of. It might cross to $4.1 billion or $4.2 billion but it won’t be huge,” added Gutgutia. RedSeer forecast came days after Forrester had pegged the e-commerce sales to be worth around $4.8 billion in the first week itself of October 15 to 21. This, however, would be 75 per cent of the overall around $6.5 billion sales expected between October 15 and November 15. Moreover, around 55-60 million e-shoppers may participate in the festive month. Forrester estimated a 34 per cent growth in online retail spending this festive month from $4.8 billion during last year’s festive month from September 25 to October 29.

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

“Since its launch in 2014, Flipkart has led spending during the festive month due to its strength in the smartphone and fashion categories, which account for around 50 per cent of total online retail sales in India. This year, Flipkart has also launched 22 smartphone models since mid-September to maintain the lead,” said Satish Meena, Senior Forecast Analyst, Forrester had said in a company blog post.