Gone are the days when sale period was restricted to just two seasons. Nowadays, e-commerce players are running round-the-year sales to grab the biggest piece of the revenue pie, rope in more brands and lure consumers into their web of discounts.
And it sure seems as if the impact of demonetization has started diminishing, with customers participating in sales with full enthusiasm. Not only Tier I cities, but consumers from Tier II, III cities and beyond have also shown a keen interest in online shopping by making the most of the e-commerce sales.
MUST READ: Flipkart, Amazon grow manifold during sale period
Here is a comparative study of who fared well, which category performed better and a lot more:
1Flipkart
What Did They Call It: Flipkart Big 10 Sale
What Big Did They Achieve: The sale target of Flipkart exceeded 5x of a normal day. The business numbers for 5 days Big 10 Sale was almost equal to the non-sale business that Flipkart does in one month. The number of customers who shopped on Flipkart during the Big 10 sale is almost 80 per cent of The Big Billion Days. Within the first two hours of mobiles going live on day 2 of the Big 10 Sale, Flipkart had done as much sales as what the entire country across offline and online does in one whole day.
Both Myntra and Jabong combined did 2.5x of a normal day during Big10 sale. PhonePe reached a new high with a 30x increase; over 2 lakh customers transacted for the 1st time using UPI in a single day.
READ MORE: Flipkart’s Big 10 Sale makes big waves in the sales of large appliances
Close to 70 per cent of customers buying smartphones on the platform opted for affordability levers such as No Cost EMI, Buyback Guarantee, and Product Exchange etc.
Average order value was 2X of a normal day. Traffic was 2x of a normal day with much higher conversions. 90 per cent of our traffic came from mobile.
Categories that Performed Exceptionally Well:
– Flipkart Fashion witnessed 5x jump in sales as compared to non-sale days. Branded goods (Fashion) have seen an increase by 10x (sales) as compared to non-sale days. Customers from Tier 2 & 3 towns shopping rose to 6X
– 10 Laptops were sold every minute during the Sale. Laptop sales peaked to 30x of a normal day
– Tablets sales saw a 50x jump in units
– 1 Headphone sold every second during Big10 sale
– 1 iPad sold every minute
– For Electronics Accessories, nearly 60 per cent of customers were from Tier II cities and below. More than one Powerbank sold every second. 1 in every 3 power banks sold in the country was sold on Flipkart.
ALSO READ: VU TV sells 30,000 units during Flipkart Big 10 Sale
– Hard Disks saw an unprecedented 30x spike over any given day
– TVs and Appliances sale jumped over 9x of normal days
– The sale of smartphones on Flipkart in the first 24 hours of going live, has been the highest sales ever done in one day on smartphones by any retailer in 2017. Flipkart did 3x times more than the sale of smartphones done across offline and online in one day in the country.
– The number of iPhones sold by Flipkart in the first 12 hours since May 14 midnight, is equal to the number of iPhones sold in the whole of India in 15 days.
What Do They Have To Say: “Flipkart’s Big 10 Sale is a grand commemoration of all the love and support we have received from our customers over the last decade. Over the past 10 years, we have relentlessly innovated on all our products and services to offer customers an envious selection across product categories. This has helped us connect with our customers from every nook and corner in the country and the response has been overwhelming. All the teams at Flipkart from marketing, business, merchandising, to supply chain and technology, came together and have delivered phenomenal results,” Senior Director, Flipkart, Smrithi Ravichandran said.
2Amazon
What Did They Call It: Amazon Great Indian Sale
What Big Did They Achieve: Amazon Great Indian Sale in May surpasses previous sale. Prime members accounted for 35 per cent orders. New customers acquisition grew 235 per cent in Tier II, III and below geographies.
Day 1 of the Great Indian Sale was the largest day ever for 2017, at the back of 85 per cent growth over Q1. Purchases by paid Prime members increased by 100 per cent since the Amazon Great Indian Sale in January 2017. Over 10X customers loaded their wallets during the sale period.
Categories that Performed Exceptionally Well:
– Amazon Fashion increased its units contribution to highest level compared to previous sale events. Majority of top fashion brands witnessed upwards of 9x growth. Apparel is the highest selling product category by units, for Amazon.in
MUST READ: Amazon sale gets more customers in Tier II, III cities
– Customers latch onto Amazon’s exchange and EMI programs: exchange & zero cost EMI adoption in the sale period grew from 5X to 12X
Brands That Did Exceptionally Well:
– Key brands in wireless that saw high growth during the sale included Apple (30x), Samsung (16x), Exclusive TVs (24x)
– New Exclusive brand launched – BPL (Televisions & washing machines)
What Do They Have To Say: “We are amazed & humbled at the response to the Great Indian Sale – It surpassed all our expectations in important areas like prime member subscriptions, new customer acquisition and set new sales benchmarks” said Vice President Category Management, Amazon India, Manish Tiwary adding, “The Amazon Great Indian Sale May 2017 resulted in most of our important brand partners witnessing large sales spikes of 8x to 90x led by fashion, consumer electronics, wireless and large appliances.”
3Snapdeal
What Did They Call It: Snapdeal’s Grand Unbox Sale
What Big Did They Achieve: The sale witnessed highest growth from North and West, with all regions more than trebling the average sales. Within cities, the largest number of buyers came from cities like Lucknow, Patna, Jaipur, Bhubaneshwar, Kanpur, Jammu, Nagpur, Varanasi, Ludhiana, Jamshedpur, and Surat.
Maximum sales were reported in the prepaid category, reflecting the growing popularity of the medium, as well the success of specially curated offers for prepaid customers like a 10 per cent additional discount offer on SBI cards.
ALSO READ: Snapdeal’s Grand Unbox Sale registers phenomenal success
Categories that Performed Exceptionally Well:
– ACs and coolers registered a 6x growth
– Juicers Mixers Grinders also were a popular choice sold at an 8x
– Water Purifiers sold at 7x the sales on an average day
– Home Theater Systems registered a 9x growth during the same period.
Top Brands and Private Labels:
Snapdeal had the best prices across portals for many branded products. However, both top brands and private labels received a resounding response, across categories. Brands that performed outstandingly well included:
– Cookware from Pigeon and Surya Accent sales increased by 25x
– Prestige Juicer Mixer Grinders sales increased by 26x
– JBL home theatre systems sales increased by 60x
– American Tourister sales increased by 16 times
– Water purifiers sales from Kent and PureIt increased by 20x
– Sarees from major private labels recorded a 3x sale
– Sony speakers’ sales increased by 7x
– HP printers sales increased by 6x
– TVs from Weston and Sony sales increased by 10x and 7x respectively
– XOLO Era 2 sales increased by 6x
– Lenovo Z2 Plus sales increased by 20x
– Samsung Galaxy J3 sales increased by 6x
– Micromax Spark Vdeo sales increased by 9x
– Apple 5S sales increased by 5x
What Do They Have To Say: “We are very happy with the response that Grand Unbox sale has generated. The rapid growth of sales across all tiers is a witness to how quickly E-commerce is expanding across the country, and the strength of Snapdeal brand among our consumers. We thank our sellers and for their continued partnership in bringing the best products and offers to our customers,” Chief Business Officer, Snapdeal, Vishal Chaddha said.
