Customers looking to acquire gadgets in India over the rest of this year could be in for good times as the country's eCommerce giants are reportedly preparing for robust growth in sales over the next three to four months. Both Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart are looking to grow their seller base with a view to offering more choices to customers.
Both the eCommerce giants had reported robust sales during their respective Freedom Sales last week as well as Amazon's Prime Day celebrations the week before. While Flipkart claimed a 54% spike in sales during the Independence Day weekend compared to last year, Amazon reported more than a million customers during its two-day Prime Day program.
Company officials from both brands are hoping that for the festival season starting from Ganesh Chaturthi later in August, the companies are planning major sales till Christmas, leading through Dussehra and Diwali. A report published in the ET says that the eCommerce platforms have already asked their sellers to place large orders with major brands.
- Amazon Prime Day sale turns out record numbers
- Flipkart unveils 'dark stores' to ramp up local deliveries
Both companies expect the festive-season business to focus again on smartphones, smart televisions, refrigerators, washing machines and other domestic appliances. In some segments, they expect sales to double while in others they're expecting it to grow by at least 40%.
While the two eCommerce giants are expecting sales in mobile phones to double over the next four months compared to the same period last year, in electronics they expect a 50% surge. Both these categories have traditionally accounted for more than 60% of their transaction revenues in the past.
Demand growth areas
Market analysts that we spoke to suggest that smartphones in the Rs.10,000 to Rs. 15,000 range would witness the maximum traction and could easily account for more than 65% of the total market during 2020. "The decline in income levels due to the Covid-19 lockdown and the sluggishness in the economy has reduced expendable income with buyers," the official said.
In parallel, devices in the lower range of between Rs.7.000 to Rs.10,000 could also witness growth, especially from the smaller towns across the country. While eCommerce platforms sell about 45% of all smartphones in India, more than 25% of smart TVs are sold online as well.
Beating supply-side challenges
Given the supply side constraints that eCommerce platforms faced following the lockdown and immediately thereafter, they have apparently asked suppliers to prepare with larger orders so that the expected demand could be met and deliveries happen on time.
Both companies are hoping that this move would provide them better margins to play with and offer customers better deals over a two to three-month period. Another shift during the major sales in August was the growth in sellers from tier-2 cities with strong growth pipelines. Given that in-store sales is yet to pick up due to social distancing norms, both Amazon and Flipkart are hoping to fulfil the demand digitally.
While Amazon revealed that they had increased their seller-base from half a million to 650,000 during the recent Prime Day sales, Flipkart reported a 54% growth in overall sales while they onboarded an additional 8,000 business to their platform.
In case you are on the verge of making a purchasing decision for that next gadget, we suggest a brief wait as the upcoming festive season could bring great deals on some of these devices and home appliances.
