Black Friday sales were better than Diwali sales for D2C brands

For direct-to-consumer or D2C brands, the recently-concluded Black Friday sale emerged as a bigger opportunity than the annual Diwali and Dusshera in terms of the overall quantum of sales. 

As per data from GoKwik, which is India’s largest e-commerce enabler start-up, brands on its network saw a 63 per cent increase in gross merchandise value or GMV in just three days compared to the 10-day Diwali sale.  

Further, the Black Friday sales were 43 per cent higher when compared to the pre-Dusshera sale. More than half – 51 per cent to be precise – of the merchants in the GoKwik network saw at least a 30 per cent spike in orders with electronics as a category attracting bulk of the demand. 

The ecommerce enabler, which works with over 500 ecommerce players and D2C brands, further found that Tier 2/3 towns contributed a whopping 75 per cent to the overall sales over the Black Friday weekend. 

Incidentally, Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping days of the year in the United States and falls on the Friday right after Thanksgiving, which traditionally marks the start of the Christmas celebrations.  

Retailers typically offer massive discounts on products during the Black Friday sales and while the concept is borrowed from the West, the advent of online shopping in India along with the rise in consumerism, ‘Black Friday’ sale is becoming increasingly popular amongst Indian shoppers as well. 

“The massive growth in sales during the Black Friday weekend suggests that consumer sentiments look very promising in India and are devoid of any signs of slowdown or pessimism with regards to the looming global recession,” said Chirag Taneja, Co-founder & CEO, GoKwik 

He further added, “That the majority of orders are coming from Tier 2 & 3 cities consistently, whether during Black Friday or Diwali this year shows that ecommerce, especially D2C, has found acceptance amongst the shoppers. Overall, D2C has found its niche timing to drive sales." 

Founded in 2020 by Taneja along with Ankush Talwar, and Vivek Bajpai, GoKwik helps solve problems that ecommerce brands face throughout the shopping experience, including enhancing customer experience, abandoned cart recovery, increasing conversions, boosting gross merchandise value (GMV) and reducing instances of return to origin (RTO). 

The start-up has helped brands reduce RTO by 30 per cent and improve conversion rates by over 35 per cent. 

GoKwik, which has well-known brands such as Limeroad, Mama Earth, Man Matters, Boat, The Man Company, Neeman's, Lenskart, and Shoppers Stop, amongst others, has over 80 million shoppers on its network.  

It recently also announced that it has successfully processed over $1 billion worth of orders in its network and has seen a 520 per cent increase in transactions year-on-year. 

Also Read: Black Friday Sale: E-commerce platforms make merry as Indians lap up ‘foreign import’