Bengaluru It’s been a great start on festive sales for online retailers such as Flipkart, Amazon, Myntra and Meesho. Their gross merchandise value (GMV) increased by 24 per cent over last year in the first four days of sales, according to estimates from Unicommerce and industry executives.
Given the good opening, expectations are for a sparkling festive season with order volumes during the sale period, which typically lasts 40-45 days, poised to record 20 per cent growth according to estimates.
Kapil Makhija, MD and CEO of Unicommerce, said, “We are seeing an increasing number of brands participating in the sale season, affirming India’s status as a digitally forward country.”
Some product categories such as fashion and accessories saw over 32 per cent growth, driven by high demand for travel accessories, watches, and kids’ apparel. Makeup products witnessed 54 per cent year-on-year growth during the start of the festive sales.
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Grand opening
Over 33 crore users visited Flipkart during its Early Access and Day 1 of The Big Billion Days (TBBD) 2024 sale event with demand being observed across mobiles, food and nutrition and grooming categories.
Amazon Great Indian Festival, which started on September 27 with 24-hour early access for Prime members, also had its biggest ever opening with nearly 11 crore customer visits and over 8,000 sellers surpassing ₹1 lakh in sales. The company noted that more than 65 per cent of sellers who received an order were from tier-2 and -3 cities.
Meesho recorded a 100 per cent increase in Day 1 orders compared to last year and surpassed daily orders by more than 3X. Nearly 6.5 crore customers visited the platform on Day 1 shopping across categories like fashion, personal care and beauty, home and kitchen, and electronic accessories.
Myntra saw 120 million visitors during its Early Access and Day 1 of sales across core fashion and emerging categories. At the kick-off of the sale event, Myntra witnessed 15X new users joining the platform and a 2X spike in OPM (orders per minute) at peak compared to last year.