Online sales to touch $11.8 bn in festival season: Report
New Delhi: Online sales during the 2022 festival season is likely to grow 28% year-on-year to touch $11.8 billion, according to estimates by Redseer Strategy Consultants.
The festival season is generally defined as a period starting from the first sales event and lasting roughly till Diwali week, including non-sale or business-as-usual days in between. Redseer estimates sales to reach $ 5.9 billion in the first week itself. Compared to pre-pandemic sales in 2018, Redseer projects online festive sales to triple in gross merchandise value or GMV this year.
Meanwhile, the number of online shoppers are expected to rise sharply too—especially those buying from tier-2 cities.
“We are forecasting 4x growth in the number of online shoppers from 2018. This growth has been driven by accelerated digital adoption and increasing penetration in Tier 2 and smaller cities. We expect this expanded customer base to reflect in higher sales during the festive sales period as well,” said Sanjay Kothari, associate partner, Redseer Strategy Consultants.
Participation of online shoppers during the festive week is also expected to double from 18% in 2018 to an estimated 38% in 2022. This includes number of online shoppers who will shop online during the festive season.
Kothari attributes this to greater awareness of festive season sales among shoppers, targeted selection by marketplaces as well as a wider assortment of products being offered to consumers that straddle across price-points.
In addition, the launch of new e-commerce models such as live and video commerce will further drive the growth of online shoppers during the festive period, the note added.
Online marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart are also expanding capacity and opening fulfillment centres to cater to a surge in demand this festive season.
Meanwhile, Redseer expects the fashion category to see greater demand led by an increasing shopper base from tier 2 cities and first-time shoppers.
“There will also be an increasing participation of fashion-led players in the festive sales this year. The mobile and electronics category is expected to remain strong during the festive sales driven by better deals and new launches. The massive growth in festive sales will further push the overall online retail GMV (Gross Merchandise Value), which stood at $52 billion in 2021, to grow by 30% to reach $68 billion in 2022,” according to the report.
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