Brands begin pushing sales via own websites

NEW DELHI:  Direct-to-consumer brands selling online saw a 77 per cent growth in order volumes year-on-year  during the festive season while selling directly from their websites. In comparison, e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, and Snapdeal saw a lower 60 per cent volume order growth this year, a report by Unicommerce, an e-commerce  SaaS platform, said.

The report said that this year, most brands got  serious about online selling with a steady rise in the number of brands developing their own websites. Post lockdown, the report noted, most brands have also begun leveraging technology solutions to improve business efficiency. 

The Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) for brand websites increased by 48 per cent, while for marketplaces the GMV increased by 50 per cent, with the report stating that this indicated that brands offered more discounts on their own websites. “This also led to a significantly low average order size on brand websites. The average order size on the brand website decreased by 16 per cent as compared to a 5 per cent dip for the marketplaces,” the Unicommerce survey said.

Overall, the e-commerce industry reported a 56 per cent growth in order volumes compared to the festive season last year. As per the survey, consumers have also become more value conscious. The rise of new categories such as personal care and beauty products, and higher sales of lower-value products led to a decline in average order value by 4 per cent compared to last year’s festive season. This year also saw certain segments do quite well.

The personal category saw a 176 per cent growth in volumes, the fashion segment 71 per cent, and electronics 65 per cent. Returned orders continue to be a concern for e-tailers, but matters have improved. This festive season, the industry observed a 35 per cent decrease in return orders compared to last year. The fashion and accessories category continues to be the one that sees the maximum number of returned orders.