Festive season sales see Rs 29,000 Cr GMV in first four days: Redseer

The first four days of the festive season sales in India have witnessed a gross merchandise value (GMV) of Rs 29,000 crore—a growth of 16% compared to last year—as per a new report by Redseer Strategy Consultants.

The growth was driven by consumers' need for premiumisation and the fear of missing out (FOMO), the report said.

Platforms selling categories with high average selling price (ASP), including smartphones and other electronics and large appliances, witnessed a sharper increase in the average order value versus business as usual this year as compared to last year.

Early Access Day (October 7 for Flipkart's The Big Billion Days and Amazon's Great Indian Festival) saw a 10X increase in sales compared to business as usual, while Day 1 saw more than 7X increase in sales compared to non-sale days. Overall, during the first four days of the festive season sale this year, daily sales were on average ~6X more than business as usual in 2023, according to Redseer.

Online shoppers took advantage of the ‘Pre-book/Price lock’ feature, an industry-first feature, which enables users could lock in the prices for high-value products, even before the festive sale started, according to the report.

The feature, along with attractive deals on high ASP items and easy financing options like no-cost EMIs, prompted consumers to lock in their choices in advance to avoid FOMO during the actual festive sale period, the report added.

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The Redseer report estimated the second half of the festive period to see a spike in demand for low-ASP categories like fashion, beauty and personal care, and home.

With the pre-book/price-lock feature, platforms will also be able to gauge demand better prior to the sale period, which is likely to result in higher fulfilment rates and enable ecommerce platforms to commit to faster deliveries, improving customer experience and leading to reduced cancellations and improved supply chain economics, according to RedSeer Consulting.

"Premiumisation as a theme is clearly being seen in this festive season as consumer discretionary spending in high ticket categories has done well. Further, the steady growth in overall sales and high ASP categories reinforces the belief in the strength of the Indian consumption story," Mrigank Gutgutia, Partner at Redseer, said.

However, these are initial findings from the start of the festive month and Redseer is closely looking at the emerging trends from the rest of the festive month to draw stronger conclusions on how consumption is evolving, Gutgutia noted.