Firsts to watch out for this Festive Season

The festive season is right around the corner and it’s experiencing a 75% jump, against the nearly $4 billion gross sales last year. This jump will record a two year high, with the gross sales amount predicted to reach $7 billion. 

A report by Redseer found that last year online retail recorded was 3% with as much as 135 million online users purchasing online. But with the onslaught of the pandemic, social distancing, and financial crunches, consumers now prefer online shopping with its convenience and festive sales. To adapt to this surge of sales eCommerce companies have adopted new strategies to meet the demands. 

eCommerce Preparation: 

Flipkart has announced that it will be creating jobs for 70000 people which will include posts in its supply chain management.

The Walmart owned e-commerce giant has cited the upcoming festive season and the Big Billion Days sale for this mass recruitment drive. Additionally, Flipkart has partnered with Max Fashion, Max has a strong presence in the fashion vertical and with this tie-up, both the brands will experience higher reach and profitability. 

Amazon India, keeping up with its competitors has introduced 4 new languages, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu, in order to woo the consumers and offer a more personalised shopping experience. Furthermore, with plans to make 10 new warehouses operational, this expansion will create thousands of jobs this festive season. The consumers can expect steep discounts & cashback across all classifications, and with Amazon’s, Alexa and voice-enabled shopping experiences consumers can shop easy.

Entering the market, the new competitor JioMart will pose a challenge to the other two giants, by combining both online and offline retail. However, being new to the eCommerce industry Jio will likely pose a limited threat

This festive season, consumers interestingly have shown interest, not in conventional electronics items but essentials, including groceries and work-from-home products such as laptops, single-item furniture, kitchenware and comfortable fashion. And according to reports 50Cr. Studies suggest Indians will buy 50,000 Lakh items this festive season. 

Demographics:

Covid-19 has caused a surge in first-time users of tier II & III cities. Reports done by Redseer and Unicommerce suggests that shoppers from these regions will be the top contributors to online sales during this year’s festive sales with more than 50% of purchases coming from Tier-II and beyond locations. While people from metro cities and tier-1 cities will be contributing to 35% and 25% of the sales respectively. 

Logistics & Supply-chain: 

The logistics and supply chain will determine the success of the festive season and the performance of the companies, hence Industry executives are working with sellers and brands to overcome supply-chain and investment issues and meet the surge in demand. A higher number of shipments are likely to occur with its peak being 7.5-8 million shipments a day during the festive season. Hence, efforts are taken to create a seamless supply chain with a glocal outlook.

The firsts this year: 

• Massive Growth: COVID-19 has enabled massive growth in new consumers, that prefer to shop in a manner that is convenient, safe, and hygienic and the eCommerce space meets these requirements
• Offline recovery: Physical shopping is still weak as consumers are still apprehensive about visiting touchpoint areas like malls and retail outlets.
• Demand: Surge of demand will likely occur in eCommerce platforms with its sales and offers for products in the category of work from home/ study from home, this has subsequently will increase the demand for categories like small electronics, home furnishings, and electronic accessories.
• Jio: Jiomart has entered the retail market with its online and offline retail stores. This will play a moderately strong role in growing sales in smaller cities, especially if strong integration with fashion/electronics commodities.
• Aatmanirbhar Bharat: A strong push towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

With digital adoption, the shift with traditional offline shoppers moving online, and a change in consumer behaviour. This festive season will offer opportunities for eCommerce companies to grow and learn about the current consumers and their dynamic market.