E-commerce firms witness surge of Tier 3 shoppers this festive sale
Walmart-owned Flipkart which kicked off its Big Billion Days (BBD) 2020 sale on October 16 saw close to 50% of its new customers coming from Tier 3 towns
Walmart-owned Flipkart which kicked off its Big Billion Days (BBD) 2020 sale on October 16 saw close to 50% of its new customers coming from Tier 3 towns, the e-commerce major said on Friday.
Customers from these geographies flocked around categories of home, large appliances as well as beauty and general merchandise, on Flipkart.
Even Flipkart-owned Myntra which is live with its 'Big Fashion Festival' sale saw 50% of new customers logging in from Tier 2 and 3 geographies.
Gurugram-based Snapdeal, which also kicked off its festive “Kum Mein Dum” sale, earlier today, said that 90% of its placed orders were from Tier 2 and 3 towns, including Nagpur, Vijayawada, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Ranchi, Patna and Guwahati.
Snapdeal also said that this year, smaller cities have already outperformed last year’s festive volumes, on the very first day of its 2020 sale.
With omni-channel being the theme this festive season, Flipkart saw new sellers from 167 new cities joining its online platform this BBD. 60% of these sellers were from Tier 2 cities and beyond including Talcher, Velur, Sohagpur, Sindi, the e-commerce major said.
For Flipkart, the top-performing Tier 2 seller cities this BBD included Jaipur, Surat and Panipat sellers.
Ahead of the sale, Snapdeal also added 1300 new pin codes, into areas which were previously unserviceable.
“Our early analysis shows that users have shown a marked preference for buying everyday use products by utilising deals and additional discounts to maximise value for their purchases. There is also a strong demand for products for festive celebrations at home,” said Snapadeal Spokesperson.
Flipkart attributes the surge in purchases from Tier 3 markets to its EMI-based ‘affordability’ and financing products, with 1 of every 5 purchases in high-ticket segments like mobiles, furniture, large appliances and electronics driven through an EMI construct, this festive sale.
Mint reported earlier this week that e-commerce firms like Amazon and Flipkart were doubling down on providing credit and fintech products, to make purchases even affordable for festive shoppers this year.
Flipkart has partnered with more than 20 banks and financial institutions, and will be targeting nearly 70 million customers this festive season with its credit products.
In partnership with Samsung, Flipkart has introduced a ‘Smart Upgrade’ plan, where users can buy a Samsung Galaxy smartphone by paying 70% through EMIs, with the remaining 30% taken off the price of the next smartphone upgrade.
Flipkart has also partnered with lenders like Federal Bank which have more tier-II customers, and with Paytm wallet to expand payment options for this segment of users.
This year, management consulting firm Redseer estimated 50 million first time customers to shop online with a majority of them coming from Tier 2 towns and beyond.
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First Published:16 Oct 2020, 09:14 PM IST
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