As India enters the festive season, online sales during the festive month are, reportedly, expected to reach US $11.8 billion, a 28 per cent increase from last year.
In the first festive week, the sales are estimated to reach US $5.9 billion, projecting a 28 per cent increase from US $4.8 billion last year, according to Redseer Strategy Consultants.
A three times growth is expected this year in online festive sales gross merchandise value (GMV) compared to pre-pandemic sales in 2018.
“We are forecasting four times growth in the number of online shoppers from 2018. This growth has been driven by accelerated digital adoption and increasing penetration in Tier-2+ cities,” said Sanjay Kothari, Associate Partner, Redseer.
Participation of online shoppers during the festive week has also doubled from 18 per cent in CY ’18 to a projected 38 per cent in CY ’22.
This year, the fashion category is expected to see robust growth driven by an increasing shopper base from Tier-2+ cities and first-time shoppers who generally tend to begin their online shopping journey with fashion.
“This is majorly due to increasing awareness of the festive sales amongst the shoppers, growing reach, targeted selection and expansion of products within the affordability range for shoppers across city types,” Kothari added.
The massive growth in festive sales will further push the overall online retail GMV, which stood at US $52 billion in 2021, to grow by 30 per cent to reach US $68 billion in 2022, the report mentioned.
