Online festive sales double in small cities

Growth in tier-I cities and metros came to 20%

Smaller cities played a key role in driving e-commerce festive season sales this year. Online sales almost doubled in volume terms in smaller cities this festive season.

The tier-II and III cities have been growing way faster than metropolitan cities and its impact is visible in the festive season sale as well, finds Unicommerce, e-commerce focused SaaS platform. Tier-II and beyond cities have witnessed a growth of 99 per cent as compared to last year's festive season. The growth in tier-I and metropolitan cities remained around 20 per cent.

According to Amazon, initial days of the festive season saw 91 per cent of new customers coming from smaller cities.

However, states like Delhi, Maharashtra and Karnataka with metropolitan cities continued to dominate e-commerce sales. These three states contribute 55 per cent of India’s e-commerce volume in the festive month.

Personal care category emerged as the biggest gainer, with 176 per cent order volume growth over last year's festive month. Beauty and wellness reported 52 per cent order volume growth.

Fashion and accessories witnessed an order volume growth of 71 per cent. Electronics continued to be the highlight of festive sales, with all marketplaces extensively promoting discounts and offers on electronic products. The segment saw a substantial growth of 65 per cent in order volume. RedSeer Consulting too found that mobiles and appliances remained strong this year driven by new launches, discounts, bank offers and smart upgrade plans of brands.

Returns remained a concern for e-tailers despite automation, though the industry overall observed a

35 per cent decrease in return orders this season compared to last year. Fashion and accessories remained the category with maximum return orders.

This year brands got serious about online selling by developing own websites. Brand websites witnessed

77 per cent order volume growth compared to 60 per cent for marketplaces.