Online shoppers from Tier II, III cities grew three times faster than metros: Report

The year of 2017 saw a higher number of online shoppers from Tier II+ and Tier II cities. The growth in online shoppers grew three times faster than metro cities.

Growth in number of unique shoppers from 2016 to 2017 in Tier II+ cities registered an advance of 34%, a report by Redseer Research revealed.

“Tier-II+ online shopper population is the growth driver for e-tailing - growing three times faster than metros,” the report said.

“E-tailing industry saw a rapid increase in the number of shoppers in T2+ cities in 2017 contributing nearly 41% of the overall online shoppers in 2017. This is going to be the significant lever for the growth of e-tailers in Indian market in 2018 as well,” the report added.

E-commerce websites hosted a number of online sales all through last year. The month of October that flags off the festive season in India with Ganesh Chaturthi and Dussehra saw three festive season sales all held in succession to the previous sale.

Fashion has now surpassed gadgets and consumer electronics purchases online, as a report by Nomura pointed out that the former comprised 18% of total internet retailing activity while the latter was at 17%.

The branded apparel market in India was set to double to $30 billion by 2021, investment analyst at CLSA, Chirag Shah said in a report dated May 20, 2016.

More number of online shoppers have started going in for apparel shopping over smartphones.

Amazon and Flipkart, the two stalwarts and e-commerce majors of India have also witnessed a higher number of online shoppers from Tier II cities.

Flipkart said 65% of shoppers were from Tier II cities during the festive sale days last year.

While Amazon on the other hand said the company registered 85% new customers coming from tier II and III cities in the festive sale days of September 2017, compared with 70% during last year’s sale.