Festive cheer is here and with it comes a flood of offers and discounts on everything from apparel to home appliances to consumer electronics. This season, as customers get ready to go on a shopping spree, the $3-billion e-commerce industry is ready to cash in on the opportunity, making a dent in offline channel sales.
Online retailers are confident that this will turn out to be the ‘best ever’ Diwali with most of them expecting to double sales. Major demand is expected in categories such as large appliances, personal electronics, fashion and accessories, besides perfumes and cosmetics.
Largest domestic e-commerce player Flipkart has launched ‘Big Billion Day’, which is focused on its single-biggest sale day, October 6. “We are prepared to have the biggest selling day online ever in India. From the customer point of view, these are going to be savings that they have never seen and may never see again. This is going to be big,” Michael Adnani, Vice-President — Retail & Head — Brand Alliances, Flipkart, said.
The company’s Senior Vice-President (Retail Marketing), Kalyan Krishnamurthy, added they had increased the field staff to 10,000 and expanded the network to 40 cities to provide customers a better reach.
Online marketplace Snapdeal expects sales to double during October. “Diwali is a big season for the retail industry. For online too, we see a huge surge at this time of the year. This year, we expect it to be the biggest season till now,” Sandeep Komaravelly, Senior Vice-President, Marketing, Snapdeal, said. At the start of September, Snapdeal saw a growth of 33 per cent, and is expecting 100 per cent growth in sales in October.
Similarly, fashion e-tailer Myntra expects a record-breaking Diwali this year, with over three times growth in sales as compared to last year.
Ganesh Subramanian, Chief Operating Officer, Myntra, said, “The festive season generally brings with it a noticeable increase in shopper interest…The mood among shoppers this season is encouraging as people are willing to spend liberally on fashion brands, which may not be accessible in offline stores.”
Likewise, Fashionandyou.com expects to double the growth rate in October against the current month-on-month 20 per cent. Fabfurnish.com, which witnessed a 50 per cent increase in revenues last year, said this period can account up to 30 per cent of the annual sales.
Another portal, Shopclues.com, which saw over 40,000 peak orders in a day last season, too, expects an increase of 40 to 50 per cent this season. The e-tailers were positive that online will drive sales this festive season, as opposed to the traditional offline channels.
“While there are still many people who shop offline, more are adopting the online medium... There is a lot of churn happening from offline to online. It will create a dent in offline sales,” said Mr. Komaravelly.
Vikram Chopra, CEO and Founder, Fabfurnish.com, reasoned, “Since e-commerce offers heavy discounts, hassle free deliveries, and a huge assortment of products to choose from, this will be a preferred choice for people while shopping for Diwali.”
Asked if e-commerce will drive sales this festive season, rather than the offline channel, Radhika Ghai Aggarwal, Co-Founder and CMO, ShopClues.com, said, “Shopping portals have a significantly higher reach — while physical stores have definite catchment areas, we have a pan-India customer base. E-tailers also have the advantage of offering a very wide selection of products at better prices, since the overheads are fewer in the online medium than in offline retail.’’
