Indians prefers to shop on Flipkart, Amazon
BENGALURU: India’s top online retailers Flipkart Ltd and Amazon India continue to be the most popular online shopping destinations with consumers, with Flipkart having a clear advantage in tier-II and tier-III cities and towns and Amazon having a big edge in metro cities, according to the latest RedSeer E-tailing Leadership Index (ELI).
While Flipkart and Amazon (Amazon Seller Services Pvt Ltd) continue to dominate the e-commerce rankings, both players witnessed a slight decline in their overall scores. Flipkart and Amazon were tied with a score of 92 for the July-September period, according to the latest ELI report, compared to a score of 95 in the previous quarter.
While RedSeer did not give a specific reason for the fall in scores, the July-September period coincided with the flagship festive sale events for both Flipkart and Amazon India. Scores typically fluctuate during festive periods, owing to a bigger volume of orders and returns, which typically impact metrics such as customer satisfaction.
Other top retailers such as ShopClues, Paytm, Snapdeal and eBay India also witnessed a sharp decline in their overall scores during the period. Snapdeal’s ratings fell by six points to 73, while Paytm also saw a 12-point decline in its score, coming in at 65. Paytm took a hit on metrics such as brand recall and customer satisfaction. ShopClues and eBay India, which was acquired by Flipkart in April, brought up the rear, with scores of 41 and 35, respectively.
In a surprise, Snapdeal held on to its place in the index despite being forced to cut costs and conserve cash after a sale to Flipkart fell apart in August. RedSeer said some consumers still recall the company as a major online shopping destination given that in most of the past five years Snapdeal spent on marketing.
The latest report from RedSeer has also adopted a different methodology to create the rankings. Unlike earlier reports, RedSeer has adjusted the sample size of its respondents to represent the actual online shopping population. What it means is that the study has focused more on active e-commerce consumers who shop online on a regular basis.
For the latest study, RedSeer surveyed 7,500 online shoppers in 30 cities from July to September, tracking prices of items across India’s top five e-commerce firms, which include Paytm and ShopClues. RedSeer said it analysed at least 30 different parameters to arrive at the rankings.
Flipkart and Amazon India did not respond to requests for comment.
According to the report, Amazon currently holds a significant edge over Flipkart in tier-1 and metro cities. That, according to experts, has plenty to do with Amazon’s subscription programme Prime. Mint first reported on April 14 that the Amazon Prime membership programme has become an important lever for the company in its battle against Flipkart, accounting for 30% of all orders on Amazon India.