Flipkart's festive sales dwarf competitors in first week of sale season: RedSeer

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Oct 27, 2020

E-commerce giant Flipkart’s sales in the first week of the sale season are estimated to be close to double those of its closest competitor Amazon, as the retailer captured sales in tier 2 cities, according to RedSeer.

 
As the first week of India’s largest scale season concluded, Walmart-owned Flipkart came out on top, according to consulting firm RedSeer, ET Tech reported. This year, e-commerce sales from October 16 to 21 represented 55% year-on-year growth, according to RedSeer. 
 
However, while smartphones, electronics, and appliances saw sales increase year-on-year, the fashion sector’s contribution to the total gross merchandise value decreased to 14% this year, compared to 17% last year, RedSeer said. Although fashion sales were down, there is the potential that they will pick up as Diwali approaches and people traditionally purchase new clothes, said RedSeer.

“The awareness of people regarding the sales and the motivation to shop online were perhaps the highest ever, and we think potentially Flipkart was more able to penetrate the tier 2 markets,” said RedSeer’s director Mrigank Gutgutia, ET Tech reported.

“I won’t say Amazon lost out, but I would say Flipkart was able to better gain from their historical strength given how online demographics has been moving this year.”

Neither Flipkart nor Amazon have made public statements on their festive sales yet.

The year-on-year rise in sales will be a boon to retailers looking to shift stock that accumulated over the course of lockdown when there were a number of restrictions on non-essential goods and reduced family incomes for many shoppers. There has been criticism, however, namely by the Confederation of All India Traders, of large U.S.-owned e-commerce firms deep discounting goods and undercutting smaller, Indian-based businesses.