After months of sluggish growth, the ongoing bumper sales deals on offer by e-retailers targeted at festival shoppers appear to be paying off, with October likely to clock as the best month on record for India's e-retailers, according to industry research firm RedSeer Consulting.
Major e-commerce players such as Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, have all launched huge sales to tap into the country's annual holiday shopping season. RedSeer predicts the GMV sales (Gross Merchandise Value) from the current shopping week alone for the e-tailing sector will likely be between $1 billion and $1.2 billion (₹6,500 crores to ₹7,700 crores) with almost 35 to 40 million units expected to be sold between October 1 and October 6.
The entire festive month of October is expected to clock $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion in GMV (₹11,000- ₹13,000 crores), exceeding earlier predictions by RedSeer of GMV sales between $1.5 and $1.7 billion range. On the higher end of the range, this October marks a 25 per cent jump over last October, according to RedSeer.
"Regular shoppers and first-timers have come online to shop in millions, from across the length and breadth of the country," Anil Kumar, CEO of RedSeer Consulting, said in a statement.
Mrigank Gutgutia, engagement manager, RedSeer, added this year e-tailers tied up with multiple brands to offer exclusives, and brought robust payment and supply chain systems that performed "without glitches."
The current festival season has been slated to be a 'make-or-break' season for Indian e-tailers as sales growth had stagnated over the last couple of quarters, Kumar said in a previous interview.
Festival season sales also account for a huge chunk of Indian e-commerce sales, up to 40 per cent of annual sales in some cases. Many e-commerce players such as Snapdeal and Amazon had trumped up their marketing spend leading up to the sales season. Snapdeal had set aside ₹200 crores as its for its Diwali advertising while Amazon was expected to spend ₹250 crores on the sales season.