Platform witnessed 110 orders placements per second, says Flipkart

E-commerce major Flipkart on Wednesday said sellers on its platform saw significant growth in orders across categories like mobile phones, fashion and furniture with the platform witnessing about 110 orders placements per second during its The Big Billion Days (TBBD) sale. The Walmart-owned company did not disclose the total number of orders it received during the festive sale that started on October 16 and will end on October 21. Flipkart had provided early access from October 15 for Flipkart Plus members.

Flipkart, in a statement, said over 666 million visits were recorded on Flipkart during the Big Billion Days with over 52 per cent of these visits registered from tier III cities and beyond. "The platform witnessed 110 orders placements per second...Flipkart has already delivered 10 million shipments with over 3.5 million shipments delivered by its Kirana partners (compared to one million deliveries last BBD 2019), between October 16-21 across Mobiles, Fashion, Electronics, BGMH (Beauty, General Merchandise and Home) and home furnishing categories," it added.

According to a report by RedSeer Consulting, about USD 3.1 billion (Rs 22,000 crore) worth of goods were sold online from brands and sellers in the first 4.5 days of the online sale event. This year, Flipkart's TBBD saw 1.5X number of transacting sellers compared to last year, amongst whom more than 35 per cent witnessed 3X more sales vis-a-vis TBBD 2019.

The number of crorepati sellers went up 1.5X, and the number of lakhpati sellers saw a 1.7X jump, it said. Flipkart said within the over 35 per cent new seller base this BBD, around 60 per cent of the sellers were from tier II and tier III towns. Flipkart Samarth programme for artisans and weavers saw a 7X growth in the number of sellers.

"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...The revival in demand and resurgence of consumption is expected to remain even after TBBD, as we continue to uplift the entire ecosystem," Flipkart Vice President (Customer Growth and Engagement) Nandita Sinha said. This was also the first completely virtual TBBD, as Flipkart adapted to the advent of a 'new normal' and its success comes on the back of the hard work of teams across verticals and locations, she added.

Flipkart said TBBD this year witnessed more than 55 per cent increase in digital payments transactions. The company said the premium segment of smartphones saw a growth of 3.2X, predominantly driven by Apple, Google and Samsung phones, while there had been a 51 per cent growth in customers from tier II and beyond markets in the fashion category.

Over 16 million products were sold in total by more than 40,000 unique brands/labels in fashion, it added. "Work From Home furniture segment witnessed the highest growth in the furniture category...1.5 orders per second were placed for furniture with 75 per cent of the customers making pre-payments," it said.