E-commerce festive push for small businesses as Amazon, Flipkart focus on Bharat

With e-commerce giants inching towards the last leg of their first festive season sale for 2020, both Flipkart and Amazon have started focussing on sellers as well as consumers from Bharat to drive sales.  Flipkart said that nearly 1.7 lakh sellers in The Big Billion Days (TBBD) sale were from tier-2 and beyond, which included local MSMEs, artisans and weavers . The seller base also expanded by 20 per cent compared to last year.

"In just about two days of TBBD 2020 marketplace sellers have witnessed growth that they saw during the six days of TBBD 2019, showcasing the pent-up demand they have seen from consumers across India," said Flipkart in a statement.  The B2B business Flipkart Wholesale and the Best Price (cash-and-carry) stores also witnessed sourcing by over 35,000 retailers and 18,000 Kirana stores in catering to fashion, fashion accessories and grocery, with half the sales of Flipkart Wholesale coming from tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

Amazon also stated that it was a strong start for the small and medium businesses with shoppers having access to nearly 4 crore selection from SMBs. This year the largest number of new customers (nearly 91 per cent), the ones who shopped for the first time on Amazon.in were from smaller cities and more than 66 per cent of new Prime member sign-ups during Prime Early Access were from tier II & III cities such as Tawang, Changlang, Mokokchung, Baran, Pudukkottai etc. Out of the 1.1 lakh sellers nearly 66 per cent came from the non-metros. 

"We are humbled how sellers, brands and ecosystem partners nationwide have come together during these unprecedented times to spread joy across the country. We look forward to help their businesses get back on track, and safely deliver joy to our customers during this festive season," said Manish Tiwary, Vice President, and Amazon India. According to an earlier report by the consulting firm Redseer on the online festive sale forecast, nearly 160 million were expected to shop this year during the festive sale compared to 135 million in 2019. It also expects the festive sale to grow from $2.7 billion last year to $4 billion during the first sale this year.

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