Small towns lap up online sales by e-com biggies, Flipkart sells half-a-million mobiles in 10 hours

Flipkart’s Big Billion Days sale started off on a good note and set new benchmarks for e-commerce players like Amazon and Snapdeal. In the last two days, the product sales skyrocketed with the arrival of buyers not only from metro but also non-metro cities. Customers across the country seemed to be enjoying the festive shopping across multiple categories including apparel, shoes, home décor, kitchen appliances, TVs, consumer electronics, books, FMCG products, sports equipment and more.

On Day 1 of Amazon’s Great Indian Festive Sale, the company saw 70 per cent traffic coming from mobile devices and the entry of new customers from cities like Aurangabad, Malappuram, Dhanbad, Kannur, Tiruchirappalli, Jamshedpur, and others. Apart from Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai, Flipkart saw huge surge of interest from Tier II cities with Nagpur, Indore, Coimbatore, Vishakhapatnam and Jaipur leading in sales.

On Day 2, customers from Tier III towns flocked to Amazon.in through multiple platforms – PC, mobile and app. In the last two days, Amazon has received over 30 per cent orders from Tier III towns.

"Day 3 of the Great Indian Festive Sale marked the biggest day ever in the history of the Mobile Phones category on Amazon.in witnessing a 3X growth over the previous biggest day during the Great Indian Freedom Sale," said the official release of Amazon.

Flipkark on Day 3 set a new record by selling half a million mobile handsets in the ten hours since sales of mobiles opened at midnight on Wednesday, October 14. About 75 per cent of the phones sold during the ten-hour period was 4G phones. The exchange offers at Flipkart saw a customer traction of 25 per cent leveraging the opportunity for upgrade to a new phone.

On October 14, Flipkart posted on its Facebook page: “We have had a fantastic Day 2 of #‎BigBillionDays. Now get ready for Day 3 with mobiles and accessories launching at 12 tonight.”

Mukesh Bansal, Head of Commerce Platform, Flipkart, said, “It has been a blockbuster beginning for our mobile category sale. With Big Billion Days, we have completely re-defined the online shopping space in India. Indian mobile revolution has truly come of age and the half-a-million mobile handsets sales record is truly a testament to the growing demand for smartphones in India.”

Delivery Innovation for late night shopping

Amazon on October 13 launched its morning delivery service across four metros: Mumbai, Delhi /NCR, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. With Amazon.in’s Morning Delivery, customers can place orders at midnight and get the items delivered at their doorstep by 11 am.

The Morning Delivery service is available at Rs 120 per order, regardless of the number of items ordered. Amazon also provides same-day delivery option, where customers can place their order by 11 am and get it delivered the same evening.

Akshay Sahi, Head, Customer Experience, Amazon India says, “With Amazon.in’s Morning Delivery service, our customers are now assured of delivery between eight am and 11 am the next morning across lakhs of products. We are excited to launch this service in time for the festive season so that customers can benefit from a variety of fast and reliable delivery options and enjoy shopping on Amazon.in.”

Cheers to Online sellers

With 2,000 hourly deals and thousands of discounts, sellers at Amazon witnessed daily sales jump by eight to 10 times on the first day of Navratra.

On Amazon.in, Grocery and Gourmet sections witnessed a three-times growth in unit terms as compared to the previous big day in categories like Chocolates, Indian Sweets, Beverages and Organic Staples. Key brands like Ferrero Rocher, Nestle, Haldirams, Bikano, Tetley and 24 Letter Mantra contribute to 50 per cent of overall units sold in each category. Health and Personal Care saw an increase of four-times growth in terms of overall units with FMCG brands. Toys witnessed an uplift of 2.5X compared to the pre-sale period both in terms of units and GMS.

Recently, a joint study by Snapdeal and KPMG titled Impact of Ecommerce on SMEs in India stated that 85 per cent of the SMEs that adopted e-commerce believe that it is a cost-effective medium to grow sales; SMEs using Internet for business saw 51 per cent higher revenues and 49 per cent more profit; 73 per cent of the SMEs felt that e-commerce enables them to understand their markets better; 46 per cent SMEs reported increase in business through listings on online marketplaces; 60 to 80 per cent of e-commerce-enabled SMEs saw reduction in distribution, marketing and sales spend.

Snapdeal on October 12 announced that it is likely to cross USD 100 million in sales on Electronics Monday Sale owing to the tremendous consumer response it witnessed by Monday evening. Snapdeal’s mega electronics sale saw an increase of 17x in the number of sales, 10x growth in orders, 5x increase in users and 4x growth in the mobile category as compared to Diwali last year, with five mobile phones sold every second.

“The tremendous support from our sellers enabled us to provide attractive deals and really solid discounts which resulted in this phenomenal response we have received today. We are well on track to reach USD 100 million sales on our Electronics Monday Sale,” Rahul Taneja, Vice President, Category Management posted in a Snapdeal blog.

Over 70,000 units of large size products like Furniture, Beds, TVs, Sofas etc. have been shipped in just three days. The electronics sale has seen the highest demand for mobile phone with Rs. 500 crore worth of phones sold on Snapdeal that day. In addition to the tier 1 & 2 cities the on-time deliveries also extend to customers in traditionally underserviced areas like Aizawl, Agartala, Dibrugarh, Tezpur, Cooch Behar, Malda, Anantnag and Tuticorin.

Snapdeal has set new benchmarks with 98.9% orders dispatched within 24 hours of order placement and achieved 98.6 % on-time delivery of the sales orders. With the huge surge in sales volumes over 5 Million orders have already been shipped out by Snapdeal until now.