Flipkart and Amazon festive sale estimate to cross $3.5 Bn in gross sales

The first phase of the much-talked-about festive season, which lasted for six days, is over. With lucrative discounts and offers, the festive sale by Amazon and Flipkart has registered record growth in terms of new shoppers and estimated sales.

Amidst economic slowdown and fall in consumer spending, both e-commerce platforms are estimated to have made gross sales worth over $3.5 billion in the last six days, which is a rise of over 30% in comparison to the previous year.

Gross sales are the total of all transactions reported in a defined duration, without deducting discounts, defect and return. The early festive sales were primarily driven by discount, accessibility and convenience and engagement through content. 

Amazon claimed to received orders from over 99% pin codes and over 65,000 sellers from over 500 cities received orders in the early festive sales. The Seatle-based firm said to have witnessed a close 70% signup from small towns for its Prime programmes.

Sellers on the platform saw about a three-time increase in unit sales from non-metro customers, said Amit Agarwal, Amazon India Senior Vice President and Country Head. The marketplace led the count of total transacting customers across categories with 50% share and had a value share of 46% during the festive sale; he further said quoting Nielsen's finding.

Whereas Walmart-owned Flipkart claimed to have captured market share of 73% in the same period, said an ET report quoting Kalyan Krishnamurthy, the Flipkart group CEO.

In compare to last year, the e-comm firm said to have registered 50% growth in the number of new shoppers. Over 40 per cent of transacting sellers during Big Billion Day (BBD) were from tier II and beyond towns, added Krishnamurthy.

Though, both firms did not reveal the total sales figure.

The estimated sales number meet the predictions made by the research firm before the start of the festive sales.

RedSeer had forecasted that during the festive period the sales would touch around $3.7 billion. It estimated the presence of about 32 million online shoppers during the period.

US-based market research firm Forrester had also estimated $ 3.82 billion sales in the first five days of the festive season. The development is significant for the overall Indian e-commerce ecosystem as the first half of 2019 witnessed a downfall in the number of shoppers and sales.

Regulatory changes made by the government and a slowdown in the economy were said to be reasons for the sluggish growth of e-commerce in India during the first half of the ongoing year.