E-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart kick-started the 2019 festive season with record transactions on their platforms during their respective annual sales which began on Sunday.
Amazon India, which opened the sale 12 hours early for its Prime customers, said it saw the “biggest opening” with more customers shopping on its platform than ever before, while Flipkart registered 2x growth on the opening day compared to first day of the sale last year.
Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart, said: “... By all indications, this is going to be the biggest festive season that India has witnessed. There is no doubt that e-commerce has not only lifted consumer sentiment but has also driven the industry to set new benchmarks.”
Amazon India claimed it sold premium smartphones worth ₹750 crore across brands like OnePlus, Samsung and Apple in 36 hours, while large appliances and TVs saw nearly 10X growth over an average business day. The growth for beauty products grew 7x, while for fashion products it grew 4.6X. “Customers showed keen interest in smart-home products, and the number of customers who bought smart lights with Echo was 10X more than last year.”
For Flipkart all major categories, including beauty, kids wear, sports, FMCG, surpassed the total business of previous year’s sale on day 1. Both the brands saw good traction from beyond tier 1 cities. Amazon India said there were more new shoppers online than ever, of which more than 91% came from tier 2 and tier 3 towns. For Flipkart, the number of transacting customers from tier 2 and beyond doubled over the previous festive sale.
“More customers opted for EMI offerings as it saw a 100% uptake increase with an increase of 100% in customers. Of these, 75% were from tier 2 and 3 towns,” Amazon India said.
