It was raining discounts on online shopping portals. The day-long e-shopping marathon held by Google received an overwhelming response from online shoppers.
Most online retailers have seen a 50 per cent increase in sales as well as traffic and some of them were even sold out by 3 p.m.
In a move to promote the e-commerce industry, Google partnered with over 50 Web sites to organise the Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF). People were glued to their computer screens on 12-12-12 to make the most of the offers and deals available.
“We are seeing more than double (of daily) sales today. We are giving about 90 per cent discount on apparel. Categories of fashion followed by home and kids is seeing good traction,” said Aasheesh Mediratta, Director-Sales, Fashionandyou.com.
E-tailers offered free shipping and additional bundled deals in the industry-wide 24-hour online shopping festival.
"GOSF has proved to be quite a success for us here at Snapdeal.com. We have seen a jump of more than 50 per cent in the daily traffic and we are expecting to record a jump in our sales as well. Initiatives like GOSF act as a catalyst to further boost adoption of online shopping in India,” said Kunal Bahl, Co - Founder and CEO, Snapdeal.com. The online retailer is expecting a 50 per cent increase in sales and finding good traction in categories such as electronics, mobile, computing devices and fashion products.
Big Discounts
It may seem strange how e-tailers can afford to give such high discounts. Mediratta adds, “Retailers give us merchandise that they have not been able to sell for a while at huge discounts. This is true for merchandise whose shelf life is over as well. We pass on these discounts to customers.”
“Out of these unique deals crafted especially for GOSF, the top selling products were memory devices and digital cameras, followed by mobile phones and television sets,” said Deepa Thomas, Head – Partnerships, eBay India.
Myntra.com saw a 75 per cent increase in traffic and over 120 per cent jump in sales with an upward trend.
“Homeshop18.com has seen a huge growth in lifestyle category. We have seen 150 per cent increase in traffic and 200 per cent increase in sales. We have seen record sales today specially from 12 midnight-5 p.m. time slot. Over 65 per cent new customers have logged in today to make use of the discounts available,” said Narasimha Jayakumar, COO, Homeshop18.com.
Clothing, footwear, jewellery and accessories have shown the maximum traction, he added.