E-commerce giant, Flipkart said on Wednesday that it delivered nearly 10 million shipments during the five days of the Big Billion Days Sales, witnessing a 10X jump compared to last year ( around 1 million deliveries ). Around 3.5 million deliveries were made possible through kirana stores which the e-tailer onboarded ahead of its biggest sales season. A large number of deliveries were in mobiles, fashion, electronics and home furnishing categories. These deliveries were made across the country ranging from Indo-Pak border in Gujarat to 5,000 feet above sea level in Siliguri, West Bengal and through the jungles of Gir forest, th e-tailer said in a statement.
The number of sellers witnessed a 1.5x rise compared to last year with 35% of the businesses reporting 3X more sales. Flipkart said that since COVID the number of crorepati sellers went up 1.5x .Flipkart doesn’t disclose its sales revenue figures, however the estimates by Redseer consulting puts the total e-commerce festive sales in the first week at $3.5 billlion.
Nearly 666 million visits were reported on the platform during the sales days with nearly 52% from tier III cities and beyond. Nearly 110 orders were placed every second, according to th e-commerce firm.
“The remarkable enthusiasm from consumers has ushered in green shoots of recovery for everyone across the value chain. TBBD 2020 has been a celebration of sellers, artisans, kiranas and Wishmasters, who have delivered unmatched value to our consumers. The revival in demand and resurgence of consumption is expected to remain even after TBBD, as we continue to uplift the entire ecosystem. This was also the first completely virtual TBBD, as we adapted to the advent of a ‘new normal’ and its success comes on the back of the hard work of our teams across verticals and locations,” Nandita Sinha, Vice President – Customer Growth & Engagement, Flipkart said.
Digital payments boost
The e-commerce platform said that it witnessed a 55% incraease in the digital payments transactions with customers choosing options like EMIs, pay later . Customer savings through various bank and wallet led offers were 1.6X of last year..
EMI options and Pay Later were an enabler of credit for customers during TBBD, with Pay Later customers clocking in 7X higher spends and EMIs showing 1.7X higher adoption in the sale.
Key categories
In the mobiles category, the e-commerce platform witnessed a 2X growth in customer visits with premium segment seeing a 3.2 X sales growth in case of brands like Apple, Samsung, Google. For Fashion, the top brands that witnessed top growth included Puma, Saara, ADIDA, Metronaut and Nike. The segment saw a 51% growth in customers from tier II cities and beyond. The e-tailer sold a total of 16 million products across 40,000 brands in the segment.
For large appliances, the tier III cities drove the maximum sales (50%) , shopping from over 500 brands available on the platform. The marketplace sold 1 TV every 2 seconds and 1 microwave every 14 seconds. The electronics category witnessed a 2x YOY Growth this BBD, with laptops, desktops followed by audio, IoT, camera and tablet being top selling.
The Work from home furniture segment witnessed the highest growth in the furniture category Flipkart set-up almost 50000 WFH desks all over India, and furnished 1 Indian house in every 3 seconds 1.5 orders per second were placed for furniture with 75% of the customers making prepayments , the e-tailer said.
Beauty, General Merchandise and Home (BGMH) saw a 100% growth in units as compared to TBBD 2019, with 40% of the units sold contributed by BGMH in this BBD. Flipkart said that nearly 1,00,000 offices and institutes shopped online and availed GSTIN. Offices and institutes from New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat, Hyderabad, Chennai, Jaipur and Kolkata led the top cities chart from where demand was seen. Top categories included mobile handsets, laptops, television, Wireless earphones, bluetooth headsets, smart watches, routers, power banks and furniture such as beds, Sofas and sectionals amongst others, the e-tailer said.