India’s e-commerce festive season sees $8.3 bn worth gross sales

This was also higher than the pre-festive forecast of $7 billion, RedSeer said in its report titled 'The Festival of Firsts'

New Delhi: India’s e-commerce festive sale season from October 15-November 15 this year delivered $8.3 billion (about Rs 58,000 crore) worth of gross sales for brands and sellers, up 65 per cent from $5 billion (Rs 35,000 crore) last year, research firm RedSeer said on Friday. This was also higher than the pre-festive forecast of $7 billion, RedSeer said in its report titled ‘The Festival of Firsts’.

About $3.2 billion (Rs 22,000 crore) worth of gross sales was registered in September this year, which zoomed to $8.3 billion in the festive period, the report said. Of the $8.3 billion, $4.2 billion (Rs 29,000 crore) was logged in the first event, $1.2 billion (Rs 8,700 crore) in the second event and $1.4 billion (Rs 9,700 crore) and $1.5 billion (Rs 10,300 crore) in other events by e-commerce companies, including Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart. Festive season sees players holding multiple sale events, timed around Dussehra and Diwali.

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The report said Flipkart group (including Myntra) and Amazon accounted for more than 88 per cent of the entire gross merchandise value (GMV) for the festive month. Between the two players, Flipkart accounted for a larger share (66 per cent), it added.

“The overall growth story has been very bullish this festive season. We had forecasted $7 billion of sales but the actual figures surpassed our expectations fairly comfortably, showing how comfortable consumers have become with shopping online even in this pandemic hit year,” RedSeer director Mrigank Gutgutia said. He added that one clear lesson from this festive season is that e-commerce has become more mainstream than ever. “And it has proven that with the right assortment at the right prices which is delivered quickly in the safety of customer’s homes, the value proposition of e-commerce is very powerful,” he said.

Gutgutia emphasised that it is imperative for brands and sellers to shift their focus to online quickly and enable a seamless online experience for the customer in order to thrive in a post Covid-19 world. The report noted that 40 million shoppers came from tier II and beyond cities.

“This festive season was one dictated by affordability and ease of access to a wide assortment of products,” it added. Also, mobile phones continued to dominate the percentage share (at 46 per cent) of all products across the different platforms, owing to a rise in aspiration among new customers.

CAIT demands 7-day ban on Amazon

New Delhi: The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) is highly dejected with the minimum amount penalty of merely Rs 25,000 levied on Amazon India by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs for not providing the mandatory details of ‘Country of Origin’ of the products displayed on its platform. CAIT has said that the fundamental of levying the fine is to make offenders realise their fault for not committing the same offence any more.

However, the paltry monetary penalty has no significance at all and it is demanded that a seven-day ban on Amazon and other big e-commerce companies who are continuously offending the law and policies, should be imposed on them. “Let there be an exemplary punishment,” said CAIT.

CAIT National President B C Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal in a joint statement issued here on Friday said that levying such a small amount on a foreign e-commerce giant for violating Indian Law is nothing but a mockery of our judicial and administrative system. “The punishment should be equal to the damage caused by them on our economy and it should have reflected a clear message to the foreign e-commerce players that anyone disobeying the law of the land,” they said.

Bhartia and Khandelwal said that in the wake of the magnitude of e-commerce business in India and taking the call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi “vocal for local” and “Atmanirbhar Bharat”, the description of the Country of Origin is now mandatory and for disobeying this law for the first time, the relevant e-commerce portal should be banned for seven days, for second offence, it should be banned for 15 days and for third offence, the portal should be banned till the time, it complies fully with the law.

“The government is custodian of the laws framed by it and therefore, it is the duty of the government to maintain sanctity and strict implementation of the law both in letter and spirit,” they added. Bhartia and Khandelwal said that a fine or penalty should always be exemplary and be in proportion to the offence committed. Having this yardstick as the barometer, the fine of a token amount of Rs 25,000 is more like compromising with the law.

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