Chennai: E-commerce companies garnered a gross merchandise value (GMV) of $1.8 billion, or Rs 11,500 crore, in the first three days of the six-day Puja season sales.
Online commerce had a strong start of the festive season in the first three days from September 29 to October 1, according to Bengaluru-based RedSeer Consulting. In the first-half of the six-day event, e-tailers have achieved 48.6 per cent of the total GMV predicted by RedSeer.
According to the consulting firm, e-commerce is supposed to garner $3.7 billion, or Rs 24,000 crore, during the six-day sales around Puja. It has also predicted that the festive month, which includes Puja and Diwali, is expected to see e-commerce sales of $7 billion, or Rs 45,000 crore.
“The first three days have been a strong success for e-tailers despite challenging macro environment, indicating that consumer sentiment on online shopping remains bullish. We expect the industry to continue to do well in the remaining days of the sales event and achieve 80-100 per cent of the RedSeer forecasted numbers for the whole 6-day event,” said Anil Kumar, Founder and CEO, RedSeer Consulting.
High share of customers have come online for shopping from smaller cities and towns, attracted by wide selection, offers and fast deliveries.
Similar to previous years, mobiles remained the leading category in the first three days, accounting for 55 per cent of the total GMV. OnePlus had earlier announced that it made Rs 500 crore revenue by second day of the Amazon’s Great Indian Festival Sale. Amazon also found that sales of premium brands like OnePlus, Samsung and Apple exceeded Rs 750 crore within 36 hours of the sale. Strong growth also has been witnessed in electronics and fashion categories as well as furniture on e-commerce sites.
According to RedSeer, customers preferred fashion on Flipkart due to discounts and electronics on Amazon because of lower price and faster delivery on Prime. Flipkart claimed that all major categories, including beauty, women’s ethnic wear, kids wear, sports, FMCG, baby care, private labels and furniture surpassed The Big Billion Day 2018 total business on Day 1.
