COVID-19 came as a bolt from the blue and placed the whole world into unforeseen health and economic crisis, altering lifestyles, preferences, and habits of consumers. Even sectors like e-commerce, which saw a huge spike in demand, struggled to generate revenue, as businesses around the world shut down due to lockdowns.
Now, with online shopping making a comeback, and the festive season knocking on our door, Walmart-owned Flipkart is expecting to overcome the losses it bore during the nationwide lockdown and has announced on Wednesday that it delivered over 10 million orders in the first five days of the company’s flagship festive sale- the Big Billion Days sale. The company informed that the sellers on the platform saw significant growth in orders across categories such as mobile phones, fashion, and furniture, with the platform witnessing about 110 order placements per second during the sale.
The company said that over 666 million visits were recorded in the past seven days, 52% of which were registered from tier III cities and beyond.
Flipkart saw a 2X growth in customers visiting the mobiles category, with a 3.2X growth in the sales of premium smartphones, driven by Apple, Google and Samsung. Chinese smartphone manufacturers also witnessed a great increase in sales, with realme showing a 2X growth in BBD 2020 over BBD 2019, and POCO selling more devices at the sale than entire 2019.
The company also managed to make use of its strong presence in the fashion market, and sold 16+ million products in total by more than 40,000 unique brands/labels. The sale, which was led by brands like Puma, Saara, ADIDAS, Metronaut and Nike, saw 1500 new cities shopping for fashion this BBD.
Other highlights included: The electronics category, which witnessed a 2x YOY Growth; Beauty General Merchandise and Home category, which saw a 100% growth in units as compared to TBBD 2019, making up for 40% of the total products sold; and the furniture category, which saw 1.5 orders every second.
Besides, the company viewed a 55% increase in digital payments as well, which signifies the huge change that coronavirus has brought to the way Indians spend their money.
Nandita Sinha, Vice President – Customer Growth & Engagement, Flipkart said, “Flipkart’s aim this festive season has been to bring resilience back into the community. The remarkable enthusiasm from consumers has ushered in green shoots of recovery for everyone across the value chain. TBBD 2020 has been a celebration of sellers, artisans, kiranas and Wishmasters, who have delivered unmatched value to our consumers. The revival in demand and resurgence of consumption is expected to remain even after TBBD, as we continue to uplift the entire ecosystem. This was also the first completely virtual TBBD, as we adapted to the advent of a ‘new normal’ and its success comes on the back of the hard work of our teams across verticals and locations.”
