Millennials drive record online festive sales in India: Oath study

Online sales have increased about 29 per cent in India in the festive season in last one year.

Sales increased 29 per cent year-over-year in September 2018, setting a record high for India’s festive shopping season online, said the study conducted by Oath, a Verizon subsidiary.

The study revealed consumers choices and behaviour during the online shopping season. The record sales were driven by millennials between 25-34, who are believed to be abreast with new technology and shop more online during festivals.

Electronics and FMCG products garnered more buyers in comparison to other categories. Around 42 per cent consumers bought electronics in last one-year starting from last September.

Among the items most checked out were Smartphones and headphones.

E-commerce prime service recorded 4X growth year-on-year. The development gave very much an indication emergence of new trends where service quality matters more than its price.

The study findings are based on data points across these brands and an in-depth understanding of consumer behaviour based on content consumption by users added the oath study. 79 per cent of online shoppers were male.

According to a Deloitte report, online retail expected to grow at a compounded rate of above 30 per cent from 2016 to 2021, driven by the shift of millennials and younger population from traditional retail to online channels.

India has the largest population of 18-35-year-old globally and at over 440 million, they account for 34 per cent of the national population.

The online shopping season in India begins with Dussehra around October and goes all the way up to Christmas and New Year. E-tailers like Flipkart and Amazon generate a big part of their yearly sales in the festive period.

The face-off between these two is believed to be the biggest showdown in the Indian e-commerce industry. This year both Amazon and Flipkart have reported a blockbuster festive season with three times the average revenue recorded in months without sale events.