(Chinese Version)

While Chinese consumers are enjoying the National Day holiday, Indian consumers are busy shopping online during this year’s Diwali Festival. Owing to the five-day shopping extravaganza, Indian e-commerce market’s revenue is expected to reach $1.5 million to $1.7 million and top three Indian e-commerce platforms, that is, Flipkart, Amazon India and Snapdeal, made quite a fortune. In this article, we will look into the details of this five-day shopping extravaganza in India and help you better understand the current Indian e-commerce market.

Sales of all major e-commerce platforms in India

Flipkart

Flipkart received a total of 15.5 million orders during the shopping extravaganza, becoming one of the top three performers in the Indian e-commerce business. According to official data from Flipkart, the company's sales reached 30 billion rupees (about $447 million) throughout the five-day shopping extravaganza, among which sales in the first day already reached 14 billion rupees (about $210million). In comparison, Flipkart completed 8 million orders during the Diwali Festival shopping extravaganza in 2015 with a turnover of 20 billion rupees (about $300million).

During the shopping extravaganza, Flipkart's sales centered mainly around products in consumer electronics, television, fashion and other fields. The number of Apple Watch sold on Flikart Apple watches during the first ten minutes after the shopping extravaganza began, equals to the total sum sold online and offline during the past month, while the sales volume of 40-inch and over TVs is the equivalent of the total sales volume in 2015. At the same time, the revenue of Flipkart's fashion e-commerce platform Myntra during the first hour after the shopping extravaganza began is three times higher than that of the last year.

Amazon India

Although the transaction volume of Amazon India does not exceed Flipkart, they are very close. Statistics suggest that Amazon India completed in total 15 million orders during this year’s shopping extravaganza, an increase of 300 per cent year-on-year. Specific sales of Amazon India have not been disclosed. The platform's best-selling items during the Diwali festival shopping festival are mainly in the smartphone, fashion, daily necessities (washing powder, spices, groceries) and other fields. It is noteworthy that 70 per cent of Amazon India’s transactions come from second and third-tier cities, and that the platform received 1 billion hits during the first 12 hours after the shopping festival began.

Snapdeal

Snapdeal's transaction volume reached 11 million during this year’s shopping festival, in comparison to 6 million last year. Its best-selling products mainly concentrated in fashion, household goods, consumer electronics, furniture and other fields. The platform received 2 million new registered users within one hour after the shopping festival began. In addition, 700,000 users were shopping online at the same time in the first five minutes. At the same time, the number of female consumers increased by 40 per cent during this year’s shopping festival.

An analysis of this year’s Diwali Festival shopping extravaganza

1. Top three e-commerce platforms all benefited a great deal

Take for example Flipkart. The platform’s performance is better than Amazon during this year’s shopping festival. Previously, an industry pundit had said that it would take Amazon India a few years to outperform Flipkart. At the same time, the good performance during this year’s Diwali Festival shopping extravaganza boosted Flipkart's confidence as well as its investors and laid a good foundation for a new round of financing. Some Indian media issued a report today, revealing that Flipkart had proposed a $5-10 billion new round of financing to support its long-term development, and that Flipkart’s largest investor Tiger Capital might play an important role in the current round of financing.

Although Amazon India failed to outperform Flipkart, it also benefited a lot from this year’s shopping extravaganza. Amazon India witnessed a fivefold increase in new subscribers, and thirty times increase of transaction volume in third-tier cities. At the same time, 65 per cent of transaction volume came from second-tier cities. These figures mean that Amazon India made huge progress in its development in second and third tier cities, and will provide a guarantee for its future development.

Snapdeal managed to maintain in the third place in the market. During the shopping extravaganza, it not only received lots of new users, but also received many female users.

2. Different e-commerce platforms offered discount for different types of products

The products Flipkart sold most are mainly electronic products, such as smartphones, TVs, laptops, etc. The platform explained that they could launch discount activity for washing powder, seasonings, small articles of merchandise and other goods at any time, but Diwali Festival was the time when Indian consumers are most likely to buy TVs, smartphones and other expensive goods. Industry pundits commented that Flipkart made a pretty wise choice, while some consulting firm also confirmed that it would take at least 8-12 months for Indian consumers to conduct such shopping behavior again, believing that Flipkart seized the opportunity.

Amazon India, however, offered discount mainly for fast moving consumer goods. This is in line with Amazon’s goal worldwide, that is, to sell all goods consumers need. In recent years, Amazon focused much of its attention on fast moving consumer goods, and this year’s Diwali Festival shopping extravaganza will certainly help Amazon India further diversify its commodity inventory.

Xiaomi's poster for Diwali Festival shopping extrvaganza

3. Smartphones, especially Chinese ones, were the most popular products

However, smartphones are popular on all e-commerce platforms. According to Snapdeal, sales of smartphones in the first eight hours of the shopping extravaganza reached 100,000, an average of 200 per minute. Amazon India’s sales volume of smartphones during the shopping extravaganza is five times higher than usual, while Flipkart sold on average 100 smartphones per minute in the first hour of the shopping extravaganza.

Among all the smartphone makers, Xiaomi was the most popular one during this year’s shopping extravaganza. According to Xiaomi, it sold hald a million smartphones during the first three days of the Diwali Festival shopping extravaganza. Redmi 3 was the highest-selling smartphone on Flikart, while Redmi Note 3 was the most popular smartphone on Amazon India. At the same time, Xiaomi accounted for four of the six highest-selling consumer electronics products on Amazon India. They are, namely, Redmi Note 3 (gold), Redmi Note 3 (gray), Xiaomi Wristband 2 and Xiaomi Power Banks.

Besides Xiaomi, LeTV achieved impressive sales as well. Throughout the shopping extravaganza, LeTV sold in total 200,000 LeTV Super Smartphones and 1,300 Super TVs Among them, Le2 and LeMax2 smartphone are two of the highest-selling smartphones on Flipkart.

4. Discount isn't the only approach to attracting consumers

For a long time, the widespread money-burning discount activities on Indian e-commerce platforms have been widely accused by all walks of life. For sure, discount is an effective way for e-commerce platforms to attract customers. However, major e-commerce platforms not only provided discount during this year’s shopping extravaganza, but also conveyed its sincerity and hard work to consumers. Credit card is still a luxury in India, and most consumers still can’t enjoy bank's financial services. In order to give consumers more payment choices, Indian e-commerce platforms teamed up with banks and financial institutions and provided consumers with various payment choices, including cash return, trade-in, interest-free installments, etc. These services directly improved the ability of Indian e-commerce industry to provide financial services for consumers.

In terms of logistics, major Indian e-commerce platforms were well-prepared before the shopping extravaganza and made huge efforts to enhance the storage and logistics capabilities. In the case of Snapdeal, the platform offered 24/7 service during the shopping extravaganza and promised to send the goods within one day after receiving the order, and partially managed to deliver goods within a minute after receiving the order. Many logistics difficulties have been improved due to this year’s Diwali Festival shopping extravaganza, and all major e-commerce platforms cooperated well with logistics companies as well as local shops. In addition, it is no longer a problem to deliver goods to second and third tier cities.

To wrap up, diverse payment choices and smooth logistics service not only improved the entire level of Indian e-commerce industry, but also created better shopping experience for Indian consumers. Thanks to this year’s Diwali Festival shopping extravaganza, an increasing number of Indian consumers might stick to online shopping, which will certainly boost the overall development of the Indian e-commerce industry.

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[The article is published and edited with authorization from the author @Zhudao please note source and hyperlink when reproduce.]

Translated by Levin Feng (Senior Translator at PAGE TO PAGE), working for TMTpost.