E-commerce platforms clocked sales of ₹24,500 crore or $3.5 billion in the first four days of the festive season sales that began last week, driven by demand for mobile phones and fashion items, Redseer Strategy Consultants said in a report released on Tuesday.
This marked a better-than-expected start to the online festive season sales, the consulting firm said in a report assessing the performance of the first leg of the online sales events. Redseer defines the first festive event as the first run of festive sales—including Flipkart’s Big Billion Day Sale, Amazon’s Great Indian Festival, Meesho’s Mega Blockbuster Sale, and sales on platforms like Myntra, Ajio and Nykaa.
“For the first four days (22 September to 25 September), e-commerce platforms have clocked in a sale of ₹24,500 crores or $3.5 billion, contributing to 60% of the projected gross merchandise value or GMV for festive sale 1. The first four days of the previous year contributed to 59%, signalling a better-than-anticipated kickoff to the festive season this year," Redseer said.
“Mobile phones continue to do well, driven by upgrade programs and new launches supported by value offers. Mobiles saw a 10 times growth in daily average gross merchandise value from business-as-usual days. For the first four days, an estimated ₹11,000 crore mobiles were sold from the large e-commerce players," the report added.
An estimated 6-7 million mobile units were sold in the first four days. E-commerce platforms along with their partners were able to bring the aspirational brands such as Apple’s iPhone and OnePlus at reasonable price-points, the firm said.
E-commerce marketplaces usually hold up to three sales leading to the festival of Diwali. The first usually accounts for more than 50% of the sales during the festive period.
