Festival frenzy: 50 lakh mobile phones sold online in two days

Chennai: A staggering number of 4.6 million mobile phone units worth $800 million have been sold in the first two days of the five-day festive season sales on the e-commerce platform. Large appliances is another category, which has received a major push in terms of supply chain. In two days, 0.6 million units of large appliances valued $170 million have been sold.

In case of low-value fashion products, the volumes are much higher. E-commerce players sold 10.3 million units of fashion products worth $120 million.

E-commerce has already garnered $1.5 billion gross merchandise value and is well on track to touch $3 billion in five days. Cash-back companies are seeing huge growth in transactions. Mobile phones as a category dominated Day 1 of festival sales and cash-back offers grew over 2,000 per cent. It was the top selling category with up to 50 per cent discounts, accounting for over 40 per cent of all transactions on Day 1. This growth is mainly driven by the multitude of new smartphone launches across different price points in the online channels this year as compared to last year. Chinese brands Xiaomi, OnePlus and Honor were huge contributors to sales.

Mobile phones were the top selling products for Amazon. OnePlus 6 (Mirror Black, 6GB RAM, 64GB storage), Redmi 6A (Black, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage), Redmi Y2 (Black, 3GB RAM, 32GB storage) and Redmi 6 Pro (Black, 3GB RAM, 32GB) were the top products sold.

Amazon Fire TV Stick with voice remote streaming media player is also a big hit among the buyers.

Flipkart said on Thursday it sold 3 million mobile phones in a day, the highest phones sold in a day globally. Three headphones have been sold every two seconds of the sale so far while it is selling one laptop every minute.

TVs and large appliances saw aggressive pricing and cash-back offers grew by 1,500 per cent. The demand was high from Tier II, III and IV cities as a lot of these products are not available in those cities. In this category, TV saw the highest spike in sales with up to 65 per cent discounts. Mi LED Smart TV 4A 108 cm (43), Samsung 6.2 kg fully-automatic top load washing machine, LG 260 L 4 Star frost free double door refrigerator were some of the products that were selling like hot cakes.

Given the high gross margins and up to 90 per cent discount, fashion as a category saw a special push by all websites. This resulted in over 1,000 per cent increase in orders placed via CashKaro on Day 1 of the festive sales. US Polo Assn, men’s casual trousers, Levi’s men’s skinny fit jeans and Casio Edifice Chronograph Black Dial men’s watch were much in demand.

Flipkart scored on appliances as well. Mi LED Smart TV 4A 80 cm (32”), Mi 20000 mAh Power Bank (PLM06ZM, 2i) (White, Lithium Polymer), Samsung 253 L frost free double door 4 Star refrigerator, Samsung 6.2 kg fully automatic top load washing machine grey and Midea 1 tonne 3 star BEE rating 2018 inverter AC were sold the most.

RedSeer Consulting has estimated e-commerce to achieve $2.5 to $3 billion gross merchandise value (GMV) during the five-day festive season sales in October. The total GMV will be double that of last year’s $1.5 billion.

The industry is on track to reach $3 billion by the end of the five-day festive period as it has achieved $1.5 billion in first 2.5 days of sale.

“Festive season sales have become a landmark event for e-commerce sales. The industry acquires a lot of new customers during the event. This year the industry has seen higher participation from smaller cities and we expect the trend to continue,” said Ujjwal Chaudhry, engagement manager, e-tailing, RedSeer.

Meanwhile, there has been a huge demand for cash-back offers this time. Paytm is giving away Rs 501 crore on cash-back offers.

Cash-back and coupons website CashKaro has seen huge growth in transactions. “Over the last few years the increase in discounts and promotional events run by e-tailing platforms has spurred a steep growth in shopping during the season. All top retailers have unveiled a bevy of offers to entice shoppers in a bid to rope in buyers during this festive season. Mobiles as a category continue to be the most sought-after segment this year, comprising over 40 per cent of all transactions,” said Rohan Bhargava, co-founder of CashKaro.com.

“Shoppers are spoilt for choice with everything from budget to premium smartphones available at great discounts and with easy payment options. Electronics and Large Appliances follow suit given the incredible offers on these categories. The efforts put in to build supply chains, delivery networks, free and speedy installations as well as after-sales services of high ticketed items will have a clear impact on sales,” he added.