E-commerce platforms, which have been doing better than other companies during the pandemic-driven lockdown, are looking up to festival season in India with extra hope as the expectation is they will double their sales in the next two months alone.
"Festive season sales are expected to almost double in the next two months alone and touch $7 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV), rising sharply from $3.8 billion in GMV sales in the same period last year," according to a news report in Mint, which quoted the internet research firm RedSeer.
In the last few months, e-commerce outlets have seen good buoyancy in sales as more people are opting for online purchase owing to the fears of Covid-19. E-commerce platforms have tied-up with more sellers and increased their custoimer base and added more warehouses in recent times.
Hope is further increased by the fact that two of the biggest online players in India, Amazon and Flipkart, recorded a combined sales in the range of Rs 5,600 crore -Rs 6,000 crore during their Prime Day and Big Savings Days sale events in August.
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Tier-2 towns in focus
As has been the trend in recent times, e-commerce portals are expecting tier-2 cities to lead the charge for fresh demand.
More than half of the orders will come from Tier-2 towns and cities with 45 to 50 million users. This will mark a 70% year-on-year rise in seasonal online shoppers, RedSeer said.
Driven largely by a new user base that now have access to internet and increased online spending of existing users, online retail market is expected to reach $50 billion by next year.
New models of smartphones, work-from-home and study-from-home enablers have been driving the sales so far, but in the festive season apparel and fashion sales will start to kick in.
The bulk of the competition would be among Amazon, Flipkart and JioMart with their plenty of supporting platforms.
Amazon and Flipkart have said that they would help their sellers make a comeback in what has been a tough season due to the economic lockdown.
There are other platforms like BigBasket, Grofers, furniture etailers Urban Ladder and Pepperfry, who are also hoping to do well.
