Led by Amazon and Flipkart, e-tailers in India achieved a record $3 billion (nearly Rs 19,000 crore) of Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) in the first six days of the festive sale from September 29-October 4, a new report said on Tuesday.
Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon dominated 90 per cent of the market share during the six-day sale event, said Bengaluru-based research firm RedSeer Consultancy.
Given the momentum seen in the first edition of the festive sale, the entire month of October is expected to generate up to $6 billion (Rs 39,000 crore) in online sales, almost shared by Amazon and Flipkart.
Flipkart continued to lead the festive sales in GMV terms, with 60-62 per cent standalone Gross GMV share during the sale event, and nearly 63 per cent share, if other group entities (Myntra and Jabong) are also included, said the report.
"Strong performance across categories including mobiles was the key reason for Flipkart leadership. This was, in turn, enabled by strong value prices, high EMIs adoption and diverse selection across categories, all marketed aggressively to reach customers widely," the RedSeer report said.
Amazon.in's GMV growth was 22 per cent (YoY). However, its volume growth rate was more than 30 per cent (YoY), the report claimed.
"The first wave of the festive sale event has seen record GMV of almost $3 billion despite the challenging macro environment, indicating that consumer sentiment on online shopping remains bullish," said Anil Kumar, Founder, and CEO, RedSeer Consulting.
Amazon.in, however, refuted the report.
"We cannot comment on speculative reports that lack robust and credible methodology," a company spokesperson told IANS.
"During the Great Indian Festival (September 28-October 4), Amazon led with the highest share of transacting customers at 51 per cent, order share of 42 per cent and value share of 45 per cent across all marketplaces in India, according to Nielsen's E-Analytics empaneled read of 190k digital users across 50+ cities," the spokesperson added.
According to the Redseer report, the year-on-year (YoY) growth during the festive sale period was 30 per cent, with significant share coming from customers in tier II and III cities.
Mobile was the category leader, contributing to over 55 per cent of GMV in festive days. Consumers delayed their mobile purchases for the festive sale season, indicating the strong "value shopping" proposition of festive days.
"The larger push has come from Bharat customers, migrating to online shopping driven by the strong value provided from the online retailers across categories including mobiles, which have shown a strong surge during sale event despite having a relatively slow growing first half of 2019," Kumar noted.
Earlier, two big e-commerce players Amazon.in and Flipkart announced record transactions on their respective platforms, along with adding new customers, especially from the tier II and III cities in the sale period.
Consumer electronics, smartphones, fashion and large appliances were among the top gainers as the demand surged from smaller cities and towns this year -- indicating that the consumer spending has only increased in the country despite slowdown fears.