E-retailers have generated around Rs 19,000 crore or $3.2 billion in sales during the one-month festival season between September 20 and October 19 to register the highest ever monthly figure for the industry. This is 45 per cent higher than $2.2 billion recorded in 2016 festival season.

The festival season of 2017 included three mega sale events along with the rest of the usual business days, according to RedSeer Consulting, a research and advisory firm focused on consumer internet market.

The mega sale event between September 20 and 24 generated $1.5 billion. The second sale from October 4 to 8 recorded sales of around $ 500-600 million. The next event that started on October 14 brought in another $ 600 million generated and this was mainly driven by strong sales of electronic devices and appliances.
The usual business days during this month generated another $ 500 million.

“Adding up all the above, e-tailers generated a total of $3.2 billion of sales or Rs 19,000 crore for the whole 30-day festive month. For comparison, this would be 45 per cent higher than the 2016 festive month between October 1 and 30, 2016, which generated $ 2.2 billion of sales for the industry,” said Anil Kumar, founder and CEO of RedSeer Consulting.

As per analysts at RedSeer, one of the key drivers of strong sales performance in the 2017 sale month was higher than ever awareness of sales among online population. The introduction of Jio increased the number of customers willing to shop online.

The e-tailers provided better and more targeted selection and offers compared to 2016. There were more number of exclusive schemes. Affordability schemes like EMIs, exchange, buyback and cash back offers further accelerated demand.

E-tailers also tried to improve shopping and delivery experience. The delivery network was ramped up since last year, allowing faster than ever deliveries.

“It is to be noted that due to the above reasons, there have been limited cases of shopper fatigue despite frequent sales events. Several usual shoppers have shifted their buying to online, attracted by the offers and greater than ever convenience of shopping,” he said.

Flipkart had doubled the scale of business during this festive season compared to last year in terms of number of products across different categories. The company targeted to double unit sales and GMV this time against last festive season. Amazon had announced the biggest sale in its history with thousands of “blockbuster deals at attractive prices” and was working with its entire ecosystem of sellers, partners and brands.

The new entrant Paytm Mall had announced investment of Rs 1,000 crore for the festive season sales. It had also promised that the customers would receive Rs. 501 crore of assured cashback.