Festive season sales GMV rises 16% YoY to Rs 29,000 crore in first 4 days: Redseer report 

The first four days of this year’s festive season sales showed a 16 per cent year-on-year growth, reaching a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of Rs 29,000 crore, surpassing the previous year’s Rs 25,000 crore, according to Redseer Strategy Consultants.  

On day zero, also known as the ‘early access day’, sales skyrocketed with a tenfold increase compared to business as usual (BAU). Day one saw over sevenfold surge in sales over BAU. Throughout the initial four days of the sale event, daily sales averaged approximately six times higher than the 2023 BAU. 

The fear of missing out (FOMO) among consumers, coupled with subtle premiumisation trends supported by accessible financing choices were cited by the strategy consulting firm as key factors behind the strong start to the season sales. 

Platforms selling high ASP (average selling price) categories like mobiles, electronics and large appliances witnessed a sharper increase in the average order value over BAU this year. As per the report, consumers took advantage of the ‘pre-book/price lock’ feature, which allows users to lock in the prices for high value products even before the sale event kick off.  

“Due to this feature, along with attractive deals on high ASP items and easy financing options like No Cost EMIs, consumers locked in their choices in advance to avoid FOMO on these deals later during the actual festive sale period,” the report said.  

The feature, introduced ahead of the sales, enabled platforms to gain a more accurate understanding of demand before the sale period. This, in turn, resulted in higher fulfillment rates and allowed e-commerce platforms to promise faster deliveries, ultimately enhancing the customer experience, reducing cancellations, and positively impacting supply chain economics, the report said. 

Redseer anticipates continued strong momentum in the second half of week one, with low-ASP categories like fashion, beauty & personal care, home perform well.  

"Premiumization as a theme is clearly being seen in this festive season as consumer discretionary spending in high ticket categories has done well. Further, the steady growth in overall sales and high ASP categories reinforces the belief in the strength of the Indian consumption story. However, these are initial findings from the start of the festive month, we are closely looking at the emerging trends from the rest of the festive month to draw stronger conclusions on how consumption is evolving,” Mrigank Gutgutia, Partner, Redseer, said. 

Amazon and Flipkart launched their annual flagship sales event on October 8, following early access for their loyalty program subscribers on October 7.  

Amazon claimed it saw the biggest ever 48 hours of shopping with a record 9.5 crore customer visits. During the first 24 hours of Amazon’s Great Indian Festival Sale 2023, its prime members shopped 18x more compared to average daily purchase. The company said over 65 per cent of sellers hailed from tier 2 and 3 cities and over 80 per cent of new customers came from non-metro cities. 

Walmart-backed Flipkart’s sale event ‘Big Billion Days (BBD)’ witnessed 91 million customers visiting its platform during early access and day one. The homegrown e-commerce marketplace said orders by Plus members—subscribers of its loyalty program—grew 7x over daily transactions. Categories like mobiles, appliances, lifestyle, beauty and general merchandise (BGM), electronics, and home experienced the highest customer demand during this period.