Premium Smartphones Drive E-Commerce Festive Sales Worth Rs 1 Lakh Crore

Major e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart wrapped up their month-long festive season sales, clocking in over Rs 1 lakh crore worth of sales. This is largely driven by the sale of big ticket items including premium smartphones during the period.

As many as 65% smartphones bought during this year's festive season were purchased online, as compared to earlier estimate of 55%, according to data from Datum Intelligence. The global consultancy firm underlined that EMIs and premium smartphone purchases caused this change.

The report released by Datum projects total sales of Rs 1 lakh crore, marking a growth of 23% compared to the last festive season. A total e-commerce sales worth Rs 80,000 crore were recorded in the festive season of 2023.

Interestingly, this year, around Rs 55,000 crore of sales were recorded during the first week as customers typically spend the most for better deals on high-ticket items, as per the report.

The Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities saw an increase in demand across categories, especially smartphones, television, appliances and fashion, it added.

Quick commerce, too, performed better than Datum's estimates of $1 billion in sales during the festive period and accounted for $1.1-1.2 billion in sales.

Sales in the last week of the festive period were dominated by quick commerce in metropolitan and Tier 1 cities, the report said. This was a result of customers spending on groceries, fruits and vegetables, along with purchasing personal care items, electronics, gifts and last-minute festival needs.

Sales in all categories, barring fashion, overshot their growth rate estimates, the data released by Datum showed.

• Grocery: 65% vs estimated 60%

• Beauty and personal care: 43% vs estimated 41%

• Home, and books and general merchandise - 23% vs estimated 21%

• Fashion: 16% vs estimated 20%

• Mobile: 25% vs estimated 19%

• Electronics and consumer durables: 14% vs estimated 13%

The first week is the most essential part of festive sales, with households postponing their purchase decisions of the preceding months to this week in anticipation of discounts and deals. The festive month started from Sept. 26, which is when Amazon's Great Indian Festival and Flipkart's Big Billion Day sales went live. The sale period culminated on Nov. 3.

Flipkart registered 28.2 crore unique visitors during the festivities, driven by premiumisation and personalised preferences, especially in metros and Tier 2+ cities.

"The east region of India showcased a 14.86% rise in unique visitors and a 12% growth in customers compared to last year. Both metro and non-metro regions experienced similar growth, reflecting robust demand across the board," the company said.

Flipkart said customers have been steering towards more premium choices across categories such as fashion, electronics, home essentials, appliances, beauty and general merchandise. "Notably, the shift towards premiumisation can be seen with the number of customers opting for top brands, which has witnessed a rise in demand of 17% YoY. Premium and mid-premium Android smartphones saw robust growth with high interest in the AI-led features," it said.