42% year-on-year from the same period last year when it was $6.5 billion, according to data from market research firm Forrester Research that was shared exclusively with ET.
Forrester has estimated that the online e-tailers would clock as much as $6.4 billion, or 70% of total sales in the festive month, during the next one week. The
flagship sales will begin from October 3.
Ecommerce sales have been rapidly increasing each year from about $3.6 billion in 2018, reflecting the growing penetration of online commerce.
This has been accelerated due to the Covid-19 pandemic as people continue to avoid shopping offline.
This year’s surge is expected to happen on the back of several factors, including
heightened adoption of digital payments and new consumers from tier-2 cities and beyond driving the growth.
“There is a lot of pent-up demand. The economy is reopening but the sale is mostly coming back online, because they are offering much more discounts than the offline stores,” said Jitender Miglani, senior forecast analyst at Forrester Research. “Users have become a lot more comfortable, and they trust online retailers with deliveries. We see a lot of factors coming into play.”
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Large e-tailers have struck partnerships with brands like Xiaomi and OnePlus, further pushing consumers to online channels, Miglani added.
ET reported on September 28 that
competition was intensifying between the two largest ecommerce players. Both the e-tailers have been trying to go one-up on each other in the festive sales period. They have advanced their landmark sales events, the most important period for both from a gross sales perspective.
Around 75 million online buyers will participate during this festive season, which lasts until Diwali, of which 50 million will come from tier-2 cities and beyond, Forrester said.
“Buyers prefer online shopping because it is safer, saves time, and is easier than going to online stores. There has been a wider adoption of non-standard categories such as grocery, apparel, and general merchandise,” according to a statement from the analysis done by Forrester.
The research firm said that while smartphones would remain the largest category, grocery will emerge as the fastest-growing category, aided by the increase in basket size during the period.
Fashion, the third-largest category, is expected to do better compared to last year. With the economy reopening, occasion-based shopping for apparel is coming back.
Together, fashion and smartphones will account for 50% of total sales during the 2021 festive season, the two categories in which Flipkart has led over the years, according to Forrester.
ET reported in September that the Flipkart Group, including its fashion portal Myntra, clocked gross merchandise value (GMV) of around $15 billion last calendar year and is
currently on an annualised GMV run rate of $23 billion.
A report from wealth management firm Bernstein said Amazon India clocked a GMV of around $11.5 billion during the 2020 calendar year. It said Flipkart, on a standalone basis, had clocked around $12 billion in gross sales.
GMV refers to the total value of sales on a platform during a given period. It includes discounts, but not returns.
This will be the first time that social commerce platform Meesho, which recently
raised $570 million from Fidelity and other investors, will compete with the e-retail giants as a direct selling platform.
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