What’s selling on Amazon's Great Indian Festival, Flipkart's Big Billion Days Sale, and others

Key Highlights

• Large appliances and electronics drive sales as it witnesses 850% increase in demand.
• Most amount of transactions were witnessed for the clothing category.
• This festive season sale is expected to garner $400 million in GMV.

First day of the festive season sales commenced on September 20 with cashback deals and exchange offers galore. The higher number of consumer financing options and deals on bank credit cards and e-wallets have pushed sales, a report by cashback and coupons website, CashKaro said on Wednesday.  

In comparison to regular days an 850% increase in the sale of large appliances like televisions, washing machines and refrigerators was witnessed the report said. Amazon has tracked a 10 times increase in electronics and computers while Flipkart’s Big Billion Days saw a 10 times increase in the sale of TVs and large appliances, the report added.

“The raging bull for this sale season has been the TVs and Large Appliances Category, which witnessed a year-on-year increase of over 850%,” CashKaro.com Co-Founder Rohan Bhargava said.

The sale on Flipkart and Amazon websites will end on September 24.

Besides shopping for large appliances another factor working well in e-commerce sites’ favour was the host of consumer financing options provided to customers.

“E-commerce sites like Amazon.in and Flipkart among others are resorting to using four key measures to push sales: Free Installations, No-cost EMIs, Bank Credit Card Offers and Exclusive Brand Tie-ups,” the report said.

Amazon is offering discounts and cashbacks to those who shop using its own e-wallet – Amazon Pay. The company has also partnered with HDFC bank to offer its customers additional discounts.

Flipkart on the other hand is offering exclusive discounts for payments made through PhonePe and has tied up with SBI to offer an additional discount.

Sites like Jabong, Myntra, Tata CliQ and Shopclues are offering cashback up to 8% on purchases made on their respective sites.

“Most transactions however have been driven by the clothing category, followed closely by personal care and home furnishing,” Bhargava added.

Shoppers may have a designated sites to purchase particular categories of products. The report also put out ‘bestselling’ categories on different sites. They were listed as follows:

• Amazon: Electronics and Computers
• Flipkart: TVs and Large Appliances
• Shopclues: Home and Kitchen
• Paytm Mall: Mobile phones
• Tata Cliq: Mobiles and Electronics
• Myntra: Sports Shoes
• Jabong: Clothing

In another report we pointed out how much Indians loved shopping during sales. Now analysts have said this year’s sale will be even bigger and reel in more revenues.

“For the 2017 festive sale days, RedSeer analysis shows that the cash burn for the e-tailing industry as whole is expected to reach upto $ 370-400 million this year (on an expected gross GMV of $ 1.5-1.7 billion), up from $ 200-250 million last year (on a gross GMV of $ 1.05 billion),” a report by RedSeer Consulting said on Thursday.