Festive season begins with a bang, GoKwik sees 20% jump in order volumes for firms in its network

GoKwik, a leading e-commerce enabler, has said that over 1,000 brands on its network have experienced a 20 per cent increase in order volume during the first phase of the festive season, when compared to the corresponding period last year.  

“We are seeing a remarkable growth in order volumes across categories in our network. Q4 is expected to be even bigger,” said Chirag Taneja, Co-Founder and CEO, GoKwik. 

“Fashion brands are spearheading this growth in volume, closely followed by the beauty & personal care category. We are seeing many smaller D2C brands also participating in festive sale events this year riding on the positive consumer sentiments,” added Taneja. 

Incidentally, the festive season is known for driving increased sales across categories including fashion, beauty and personal care, electronics and more as people gear up to buy their favourite products at great discounts. 

Amongst these categories, fashion shined the most and recorded a 148 per cent increase in order volume. Shoppers in the GoKwik network availed 12.1 per cent higher discounts this festive season compared to last year.  

As a result, overall GMV increased by 53.3 per cent with prepaid GMV multiplying 2X as a variety of prepaid discounts, rewards and loyalty points were made available to the shoppers.  

Despite the surge in orders, the return-to-origin (RTO) rate (non-deliverability of COD orders) has come down by 26 per cent on account of GoKwik’s solutions in curbing RTO losses for the brands. 

Interestingly, UPI, India’s second most preferred mode of payment after cash, had the highest share in these prepaid payments. 

The states that contributed the most to the surge in order volume included Maharashtra, which accounted for majority of these orders (12 per cent) followed by Uttar Pradesh (7.8 per cent) and Karnataka (7.3 per cent). 

The cash on-delivery GMV also increased by almost 40 per cent with the highest contribution from fashion brands. The preference for COD amongst Indian shoppers continues mostly due to lack of trust, especially during the festive period when orders are usually delayed because of high demand.  

Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi and Gujarat were the top contributors for COD orders. 

“The shoppers are all geared up to make the most of festive season deals that ecommerce brands are offering. As the most important leg of festive season approaches, brands are charged up to double down on their marketing efforts and scale their business during this period. ” said Taneja. 

According to a report on customer insights by Axis My India, 44 per cent of the shoppers participating in festive sales are expected to spend more than the previous year.  

Further, a Redseer report stated that smaller e-commerce players in India are also actively gearing up to compete with larger players during the festive season. They are expected to invest 75 per cent more in marketing and advertising expenditures compared to the business-as-usual period. 

GoKwik houses 1000+ ecommerce brands in its network including Lenskart, Pilgrim, Bombay Shaving Company, Shopper’s Stop, Snitch, Neemans, and Mivi etc, ranging from fashion, beauty, health and nutrition, electronics, and other key categories of the online shopping space.  

GoKwik is backed by investors such as Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners India, RTP Global & Think Investments.