As the festive season is set to kickstart across the country, Redseer Strategy Consultants has forecasted the online sales (Gross Merchandise Value) during festive month to reach $11.8 billion, which is a 28 per cent increase from last year.
The festive month is generally defined as a period starting from the first sales event and lasting roughly till Diwali week, including non-sale or business-as-usual days in between.
The consulting firm also noted that the festive share of annual GMV is expected to drop from 17.8 per cent last year to 17.4 per cent in 2022. This is said to be an impact of increasing frequency of transactions fuelled by sale events throughout the year.
Compared to pre-pandemic sales in 2018, the report is projecting almost 3x growth in online festive sales GMV this year.
“We are forecasting 4x growth in the number of online shoppers from 2018. This growth has been driven by accelerated digital adoption and increasing penetration in Tier 2+ cities. We expect this expanded customer base to reflect in higher sales during the festive sales period as well,” said Sanjay Kothari, Associate Partner, Redseer Strategy Consultants.
Reasons for growth
Participation of online shoppers during the festive week has also doubled from 18 per cent in CY18 to a projected 38 per cent in CY22.
“This is majorly due to increasing awareness of the festive sales among the shoppers, growing reach, targeted selection, and expansion of products within the affordability range for shoppers across city types,” Kothari added.
Further, the launch of new e-commerce models such as live/video commerce is also expected to drive the growth of online shoppers during the festive period.
This year, the fashion category is expected to see robust growth driven by an increasing shopper base from Tier 2+ cities and first-time shoppers who generally tend to begin their online shopping journey with fashion.
There will also be an increasing participation of fashion-led players in the festive sales this year. The mobile and electronics category is also expected to remain strong during the festive sales driven by better deals and new launches.