Ecommerce festive sales off to a bright start on deep discounts

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Brands and ecommerce platform executives said they have seen a better-than-expected start to festive season sales at the end of the first week, with deep discounts, shaking off concerns around an impact from the ‘Shradh’ period, which lasted till October 15.

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Ecommerce enabler firm Unicommerce, which tracks online sales data, said the Indian ecommerce industry reported a more than 30% growth in order volume terms between October 7 and 13. Between October 7 and 14, the ecommerce platforms clocked gross sales of more than $4 billion, an increase of about 18% from the first week of festive sales a year ago, said Satish Meena, an advisor at market researcher Datum Intelligence.

The period of ‘Shradh’, which fell between September 29 and October 15 this year, is a time when Hindus across many states in India venerate their ancestors — a solemn period when people refrain from making purchases.

“Compared to the first week of the festive period last year, we saw a three times growth in sales,” said Anurag Kedia, cofounder of beauty and wellness brand Pilgrim, which closed a $20 million funding on September 26.


Echoing Kedia, Boldfit founder Pallav Bihani said the healthcare brand posted a 3.5 times sales growth across marketplaces over the same period last year. “We’re seeing some great trends early on compared to a rather dull sale last year,” he said. Boldfit sells