Amazon Great Indian Festival: 80% of shoppers, 65% of sellers hail from Tier 2, 3 cities

Amazon concluded its Great Indian Festival (GIF) 2023, the e-commerce giant’s flagship sales event in India. The company said this year’s edition achieved record-breaking metrics, including the highest customer visits, transactions, new product launches, orders, and savings compared to previous years.

Started on October 8 with a 24-hour Prime early access period, the GIF witnessed participation from customers residing in 99.7 per cent of pin codes throughout the month-long event, the company said. Notably, 80 per cent of the customers hailed from Tier 2 and 3 towns such as Jalandhar, Kolhapur, Midnapore, and Visakhapatnam. Over 65 per cent of the sellers, too, hailed from Tier 2, 3 cities and beyond, and over 65 per cent of Prime members who shopped during the festive season were from such regions.

Amazon India said it clocked a record 1.1 billion customer visits on the platform during the period, with the highest single-day Prime sign-ups occurring within the initial 48 hours of the sale event. More than 4 million new customers shopped for the first time.

Small and medium businesses saw a more than 35 per cent increase in sales compared to the previous year. Over 38,000 sellers achieved their highest-ever single-day sales, and over 750 sellers made sales worth crores, over 31,000 sellers made sales in the lakhs.

“The Amazon Great Indian Festival 2023 has been the biggest ever in history! We are humbled to be a part of customer’s festivities and witnessed a record of more than 1.1 billion visits with 4 million+ new customers shopping on Amazon India for the first time. This festive season, 80% of our customers who shopped came from tier 2-3 cities reiterating our strong capabilities of delivering across all serviceable pin codes in India. We also saw the highest ever Prime sign ups in a single day this season along with the highest seller participation along with 5,000 new launches from top brands,” said Manish Tiwary, Country Manager, India Consumer Business, Amazon.

As per the company, almost half of all orders from Prime members were delivered within 48 hours of making a transaction during Amazon Great Indian Festival 2023.

Amazon Pay Later usage was 2.4x compared to last year and 1 out of 4 purchases were made on EMI.

In the premium segment, Amazon sold 2.5x more smartphones as compared to last year with 70 per cent of all smartphones orders coming from Tier 2 and below towns. 3 out of 5 consumer electronics and personal computing orders came from tier 2 and 3 cities. Amazon Fashion witnessed a 3x spike compared to 2022 sales. Sales of large-screen TVs (55 inches and above) hit an all-time high, surpassing the 2022 figures by over 50 per cent.

The beauty devices category experienced a 70 per cent increase, and within the beauty sector, dermatologist-led brands and beauty gift sets witnessed spikes of up to 3x and 4x compared to the previous year. Over 60 per cent of new shoppers purchasing fashion and beauty products hailed from Tier 2 cities and below.

Amazon Fresh saw more than 50 per cent YoY growth with a 3x jump in customers shopping for the first time on Amazon Fresh.