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Online sellers, marketplaces and brands are eyeing a strong finish to festive sales after a mid-season dip, with analysts expecting sales of Rs 22,000-25,000 crore in gross merchandise value (GMV) in the last week of the season, led by quick commerce.
So far, about Rs 85,000-90,000 (or 70-75%) of the estimated Rs 1.2 lakh crore in GMV has been clocked by the marketplaces, analysts said.
With much of the shopping in the final week happening for last-minute purchases and gifting purposes for Diwali, sellers and brands are expected to step up discounting to as much as 20-30% with certain categories seeing discounts as high as 40%, brands and analysts said. This festive season, discounting has gone upwards of 5-6% compared to last year.
Many are introducing new festive product selections and steeper discounts, especially in categories like fashion, beauty, home décor, kitchen appliances and gifting, they said.
“We expect an uptick in the final stretch, with upcoming festive occasions and new collections reigniting demand,” said Sidhant Keshwani, founder and chief executive of Indian fashion wear brand Libas.
He said the brand has so far seen a 30% year-on-year (YoY) rise this festive season.
ETtech
Menswear fashion brand Snitch is pushing limited-edition festive collections in the last week after seeing a 2.3X YoY growth in ecommerce sales so far, its founder Siddharth Dungarwal said. It is expecting another 25-30% uplift in sales.
However, sellers noted that after high demand in the first week driven by the GST cut, the demand dropped in the following weeks.
“After the first week of the sales, the demand dropped. For us, there was a dip in sales by 20% for the last two weeks,” said Santhosh Balasundaram, chief executive and founder of Shadow Etail, an ecommerce seller.
Ecommerce sales, which began on September 22, accounted for about 51% of the total expected festive sales during the first week, generating about Rs 60,700 crore in GMV, ET had reported earlier.
“Most of the purchase has already been done, that's why we will see heavy discounting on televisions, appliances, mobiles and other big-ticket items ecommerce to make the most of the sales,” said Satish Meena, founder of Datum Intelligence.
In a statement to ET, an Amazon India spokesperson said so far, kitchen, apparel, toys and jewellery categories have emerged among the top performing.
“We have been continuously working towards strengthening our supply chain for same-day delivery,” said Saurabh Srivastava, vice president at Amazon India. He expects categories like fashion, beauty, home decor, kitchen appliances, and gifting to see an uptick this week.
Flipkart did not respond to ET's queries as of press time Tuesday.
Brands and analysts expect many shoppers to make most of their remaining purchases on quick commerce since a lot of it will be for Diwali-specific items.
To capture this demand, D2C brands are also launching quick-commerce shopper specific products.
For instance, handbag brand Zouk has launched a gifting portfolio which will be offered specifically on platforms like Blinkit, Instamart, Zepto, and Flipkart Minutes.
Similarly, wellness brand Secret Alchemist has launched affordable perfume packs for the last-minute gifting segment on quick commerce apps.
Meanwhile, the supply chain is under pressure amid increasing demand in quick commerce.
“Logistics is stressed going into the last week, as is the case every year. However, we are focusing on keeping the products closer to the end consumer to meet better delivery timelines and aid last minute purchases,” said Anurag Agrawal, cofounder of home decor and lifestyle brand Nestasia.
Also Read: Quick commerce reshapes festive shopping with idols, sweets, puja essentials
Source: EconomicTimes
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