First week of festive sale processed GMV worth $4.1 Bn: Report

While the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the operations of e-commerce companies during the first three months of the current fiscal, they have since recovered and bounced back in the past few months. And with the festive season sale, e-commerce firms have registered record-breaking numbers.

According to the research and consulting firm Redseer’s report, the first week of festive sale saw a 55% year-on-year sales growth with $4.1 billion worth goods sold across e-commerce platforms as compared to $2.7 billion last year. 

The report is based on the industry sales performance from October 15-21, 2020. Unlike Amazon’s ongoing Great India Festival Sale, Flipkart concluded its flagship sale: the Big Billion Days on October 21. Out of the two e-commerce majors, Flipkart has emerged as leader and accounted for 68% of the gross merchandise value or GMV during its 7 days sale, the report added. 

Responding to Entrackr's queries, Amazon spokesperson said, "We cannot comment on speculative reports without transparent methodology. The Great Indian Festival has given lakhs of sellers & hundreds of brands their biggest festive season on Amazon.in."

Entrackr has sent queries to Flipkart. We’ll update the post when they respond.

While flipkart group and Amazon together constituted 90% of GMV during a week long sale, the rest of the 10% came from other players such as Snapdeal, Myntra, Paytm Mall, among others. 

The total shoppers increased by 85% from 28 million in 2019 to 52 million out of which more than 55% came from tier-II cities. 

Category wise, mobiles and electronic appliances remained strong this year driven by new launches, heavy discounts, bank offers, and smart upgrade plans of brands. Smartphones accounted for 47% of the overall sales, whereas electronics and appliances generated 27% of the total sales. 

Fashion and other segments such as home furnishings contributed 25% of the total sales, said the report. Importantly, the GMV per customer, however, dropped from Rs 6,800 in the last festive season to Rs 5,500 this year, the report highlighted. 

Impacted by the pandemic, the festive season sales were crucial for both Amazon and Flipkart. Just before their flagship sales, Amazon infused Rs 1,125 crore in internal funding while Flipkart also completed a $1.3 billion round from Walmart, Tencent and Qatar Investment Authority. 

At the end of the festive sale, Flipkart claimed to have crossed 10 million shipments, while Amazon witnessed a surge in seller’s participation. 

(This post has been updated after receiving an official statement from Amazon spokesperson.)