Soaring heat boosts AC, cooler sales for e-tailers
BENGALURU: Online firms like Flipkart, Amazon and ShopClues are seeing massive growth in sales of air conditioners, air coolers and refrigerators following the early onset of summer. Owing to this demand, Flipkart and Amazon have also started doing installations for such large appliances rather than let consumers wait for the respective brands to do it. They have also made changes to their warehousing infrastructure to ensure faster deliveries.
“We offered a free installation scheme on all ACs, which was a deal sweetener for the customers,“ Sandeep Karwa, head of consumer electronics and appliances at Flipkart told TOI. The company ran a three-day “cooling days“ sa les event that saw four times higher sales compared to a normal day . Overall sales are now double that in January .Karwa said Flipkart has delivered more than 40% of the orders within 24 hours.
Suchit Subhas, category leader for large appliances at Amazon, said timely and consistent installation is very important for this category . “We are not only partnering with all our brands on installations but we have also launched our own installation services to ensure a seamless experience to customers,“ he said.
To cater to the summer demand, Amazon has built a dedicated supply chain that makes the delivery fast and reliable. It has invested in nine de dicated fulfilment centres and 33 delivery stations exclusively for large appliances.Amazon said daily unit sales have grown 200% over the last 12 months.
ShopClues said AC and refrigerator sales started picking up from mid-March. “The numbers are five times of what they were in February and almost three times of last April's numbers,“ said Nitin Kochhar, vice-president for categories at ShopClues. This has made the segment the fastest growing for the e-commerce company during the first months of this year. The segment is normally sixth or seventh in the overall electronics category.
Even large appliances' renting companies like GrabOnRent and Rentomojo have seen big spikes in demand.
“We offered a free installation scheme on all ACs, which was a deal sweetener for the customers,“ Sandeep Karwa, head of consumer electronics and appliances at Flipkart told TOI. The company ran a three-day “cooling days“ sa les event that saw four times higher sales compared to a normal day . Overall sales are now double that in January .Karwa said Flipkart has delivered more than 40% of the orders within 24 hours.
Suchit Subhas, category leader for large appliances at Amazon, said timely and consistent installation is very important for this category . “We are not only partnering with all our brands on installations but we have also launched our own installation services to ensure a seamless experience to customers,“ he said.
To cater to the summer demand, Amazon has built a dedicated supply chain that makes the delivery fast and reliable. It has invested in nine de dicated fulfilment centres and 33 delivery stations exclusively for large appliances.Amazon said daily unit sales have grown 200% over the last 12 months.
ShopClues said AC and refrigerator sales started picking up from mid-March. “The numbers are five times of what they were in February and almost three times of last April's numbers,“ said Nitin Kochhar, vice-president for categories at ShopClues. This has made the segment the fastest growing for the e-commerce company during the first months of this year. The segment is normally sixth or seventh in the overall electronics category.
Even large appliances' renting companies like GrabOnRent and Rentomojo have seen big spikes in demand.
