21 November 2022, Mumbai:
This festive season saw bumper sales online.
So says Redseer. About 64 per cent of the transacting shoppers came from Tier II cities.Fashion led category adoption in Tier II cities, led by unbranded fashion, wherein one in every five orders had a kurti or sari in their cart. Within beauty, makeup was the most sought-after category with a lot of interest in looking and feeling good. During the festival sales online gross merchandise value (GMV) grew 25 per cent year on year during the festive month amounting toRs76,000 crores . And Tier II contributed to more than half of this GMV, at around 57 per cent. Democratisation of categories continued this year as well, with lower-order-value itemsgrowing faster than mobiles and electronics. While mobiles and electronics dominated category share, home and kitchen, groceries and beauty personal care were the fastest growing categories. Grocery grew almost two times from the last festive season. Sales went up both online and offline during the festival month.Simultaneous growth of online and offline revalidated the domestic consumption story and indicated ample growth opportunities for both formats. There is growing maturity in the online retail ecosystem.Three in four sellers reported at least two times volume growth from business as usual during sale days, with strong support from platforms in planning and executing the festive season well. This increase was more visible in lower average selling price categories like fashion where 42 per cent of the sellers reported a three times to five times growth from business as usual.
Growth in long-tail categories
While mobiles initially attracted flocks of customers, their overall growth slowed down. Fashion sales remained strong as ever driven by the need to dress up for festivals. Long-tail categories or lower-order-value items grew much faster than mobiles and electronics.Within long-tail categories, grocery contributed to 34 per cent of growth while home and kitchen (21 per cent) and beauty and personal care (14 per cent) were the other frontrunners. E-grocery witnessed a two times growth from last festive season. In home furnishing and décor, cushion covers, showpiece and decor accents contributed most to the growth. Gifting emerged as a strong reason for purchase across categories and consumers reported an increase in the overall satisfaction with online platforms.