Festive season sales: Fashion, personal electronics emerge as top categories; digital & credit payments turn popular

The first wave of the festive season sale kicked off in the last week of September, with major ecommerce platforms unveiling flashy discounts and offers. 

The top-selling categories this season include beauty, personal electronics, home and kitchen products, driven by greater traction from Tier II cities and smaller towns. The first set of the festive season sales is expected to end with Diwali. 

There was an uptick in shoppers, both online and offline, during the last week of September, even before Navratri which started in the first week of October. 

Traditionally, sales before Navratri are muted as consumers are hesitant to buy new things during Shradh, a period when Hindus pay reverence to their ancestors. Sales generally pick up only from the first week of Navratri. However, in the last few years, the trend seems to be slowly shifting.

“While previously sales started with the commencement of Navratri festivities, the trend has shifted towards launching sales a few days earlier, with sales then continuing through the festive season till Diwali and beyond,” Unicommerce, which provides SaaS to ecommerce platforms, said in a statement to YourStory. 

According to Unicommerce, online sales were 16% higher during the first 10 days of the sale season, compared to the corresponding period last year. The gross merchandise value was also 16% higher based on 2.8 million order items processed on Unicommerce platforms. 

Transactions across all major marketplaces on CashKaro’s cashback platform increased by an average growth rate of 20% during the festive season, noted Swati Bhargava, Co-Founder of CashKaro, a cashback and coupons website. 

Ecommerce sales

Reseller platform Snapdeal said it clocked 1.8X growth in order volumes during the sale period till 15th October, while domestic ecommerce platform Meesho said it witnessed 145 crore customer visits during the first set of festive sales. 

Walmart-owned Flipkart managed to clock 33 crore user visits during early access and day 1 of its Big Billion Days festive sale. It noticed a growing demand for mobile phones, electronics, large appliances, fashion and beauty products.

Flipkart's sale started on September 27 and ended on October 26. 

From the beginning of September to the end of sale this year, Flipkart recorded 7.2 billion visits and 282 million unique visitors during the festivities. Around 140 crore customers visited Flipkart’s platform during its flagship festival sales event last year. 

Amazon’s Great Indian festival–which ran from September 27 to October 29–witnessed a record 11 crore customer visits in the first 48 hours. 

According to the company, as compared to 2023, more than 140% Prime members (Amazon’s paid subscription service) shopped during the first 24 hours and purchased 8X more than their average daily purchases. Amazon also said shopping by Prime members spiked 18 times in the first 24 hours of Prime Early Access (vs average daily purchase). 

The online retailer recorded 9.5 crore customer visits during its festival sale last year.

Specific sales numbers will be available once the season ends.

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Top categories

“On fashion as a whole, spending has not reduced, but people are trying newer things and brands/ticket sizes have changed a lot for consumers,” noted Datum Intelligence, in a report cited by Bank of America. 

During the first set of sales, fashion emerged as the top category, driven by ethnic wear, especially for the upcoming wedding season. Daily wear jewellery and kids’ fashion witnessed notable growth, particularly helped by traction from Tier II cities, according to strategy consulting firm Redseer. 

With an extended summer and rising humidity, demand for ACs and refrigerators was high, especially in under-penetrated regions. 

Amazon saw an increase in demand for washing machines, refrigerators, and air-conditioners. These categories witnessed a 1.7X increase in orders from customers using exchange offers and a 1.6X spike from those opting for no-cost EMI. 

“In the large appliances segment, we witnessed exceptional growth, as more customers are upgrading and opting for premium products,” noted Amazon India.

However, Bank of America noted that sales for electronics and consumer durables (like air conditioners) was expected to be much higher, but some amount of spending had already happened earlier this year due to the harsh extended summer. 

For mobiles, the offline sales growth was flattish, indicating a macro slowdown in the segment. Electronics would have seen a similar (or slightly better) year-on-year sales growth, especially in branded outlets like Croma and Vijay, according to Kushal Bhatnagar and Nikhil Dalal, Associate Partners at Redseer Strategy Consultants. 

Sales numbers for September in offline stores indicate that consumers are willing to spend in categories where they see value. 

The top performing categories include food and grocery with a 12% increase, jewellery which grew by 8%, and consumer durables and electronics, which increased by 6% as compared to September 2023, according to data shared by Retailers Association of India. 

Sales of home and kitchen products more than doubled on affordable marketplace Meesho during the festive season. 

Home entertainment categories witnessed a 32% rise on CashKaro, while kitchen and dining saw 27% to 16% growth, respectively. 

Gold and diamond jewellery purchases, especially lab-grown diamonds, witnessed a 5X spike on Amazon. Semi-fine 18K gold jewellery grew 75% as customers sought premium aesthetics within a budget. Amazon witnessed an 84% spike in hallmarked gold jewellery from legacy brands such as Malabar Gold, Joyalukkas and PC Chandra. 

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Digital and credit payments turn popular

Amazon noticed a growing usage of digital payment methods among its users, with Amazon Pay UPI clocking the highest ever at 16% YoY. 

Meesho, which has a strong hold in Tier II and smaller towns, saw its prepaid payment instruments more than double in volume during the season. 

Flipkart saw third-party EMI usage grow 27X in spends and 18X in transactions, compared to its daily run rates. The platform’s in-house BNPL service ‘Flipkart Pay Later EMI’ witnessed an 8.5X spike in daily transactions run rate. 

Credit card applications grew by 20%, especially in the lead-up to the major sale season, noted Cashkaro. 

Industry watchers expect festive sales in the offline markets to shift towards quick commerce platforms in the near future, as consumers opt for home delivery and quick service for a larger variety of products. 

“Even planned purchases would likely move to quick commerce during the period (festive season). Customers have much bigger confidence on getting their grocery needs serviced quickly while being at home,” notes Bank of America. 

According to the RBI’s bi-monthly consumer confidence survey report, consumer confidence in October improved, after a sluggish trend reported in the previous two reports in July and May. According to the latest report, households have expressed higher confidence for the year ahead.

With another wave of festive sales expected during the end of the year, the momentum is expected to continue, tapping into the Christmas cheer.