E-commerce firms eyeing blockbuster Holi festival sales

With the pandemic having accelerated the shift to e-commerce, online shopping platforms such as Meesho, Amazon and Flipkart are witnessing blockbuster Holi festival sales.

Meesho, a fast-growing e-commerce platform, said its three-day Holi sale event from March 4-6 recorded over 14 million orders. In fact, the SoftBank-backed platform surpassed last year’s peak Diwali sale orders, which is usually the biggest festival shopping season in the country.

Meesho, which claims that its mission is to democratise internet commerce, saw nearly 80 per cent of the demand coming from Tier 2+ markets like Amravati, Aurangabad, Faizabad, Muzaffarpur and Silchar, during its recent Holi sales. The platform also witnessed a sizeable increase in the sale of jewellery, footwear, electronics and apparel.

“The recently concluded Holi sale event was a significant milestone for us,” said Utkrishta Kumar, CXO, Business, at Meesho, “Recording 14 million orders in just three days, with 80 per cent of this demand coming from Tier-2+ cities, underscores our efforts to democratise e-commerce. With over 77 million unique product listings, we will continue to expand our product portfolio to make Meesho a single-shopping destination for the next billion consumers in the country,” Kumar added.

With seller-friendly initiatives like zero per cent commission, zero penalty and a seven-day payment cycle, sellers on Meesho are able to have better profit margins and grow their business. During the Holi sale, sellers witnessed a nearly 230 per cent increase in orders.

“The highlight of the sale was that the order flow was the same on all three days. This was even better than the Diwali sale,” said Varun, a Meesho seller from Delhi.

“We saw a 5x jump in sales. This was my best sale so far,” said Priyank Adesara, another Meesho seller from Rajkot.

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Meesho provides access to over 77 million unique products from a plethora of categories. In 2021, over 71 per cent of all new Meesho users came from India’s Tier 3+ markets.

Flipkart’s social commerce platform, Shopsy, has also witnessed some extraordinary shopping trends as it celebrates its first Holi with its customers.

“From Holi pichkaris (water guns) and organic colours, customers are now moving from the traditional ways of celebration and making their buys more value-focused,” said a Flipkart spokesperson. “While the Holi essentials category witnessed a 60 per cent traction from Tier 3+ cities, the east and north zones contributed to the majority of buyers.”

The top cities with the highest demand were Patna, Lucknow, Guwahati, Varanasi, Allahabad, Jaipur, Ranchi, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Medinipur, Bankura and Nagpur.

Shopsy witnessed a 5x growth in the demand for colours, while there was a close to 4x growth in orders for pichkaris. The apparels category, too, recorded a 2x jump, with customers wanting to stock up on festive clothes ahead of Holi.

Some of the other categories that registered a phenomenal growth in demand include Holi decoration items (25x), Holi crackers (21x), and non-alcoholic beverages (17x), among many others.

“While Shopsy’s affordable and wide selection of Holi products lured many customers, women and the student community accounted for the maximum purchases,” said a Flipkart spokesperson. “Additionally, a diverse variety of packaged food items such as flour, sooji, ghee, sugar, savouries and others recorded notable demand across Tier 3+ cities.”

Though Shopsy is in its first year, the social commerce market as a whole has seen a huge growth potential on online channels. “This also helps Shopsy further its commitment to offer affordable, convenient, and value-driven products to customers in all parts of the country, while enabling entrepreneurship for millions of Indians,” said the Flipkart spokesperson.

E-commerce giant Amazon is also tapping into customers’ Holi buying spree. It has curated a ‘Holi Shopping Store’, designed as a one-stop destination to cater to all Holi shopping needs, ranging from herbal colours and pichkaris to fashion and beauty essentials, to puja essentials, waterproof gadgets and accessories.

Amazon said customers can look forward to saving on big brands such as Xiaomi, OnePlus, Maybelline, Sugar Cosmetics, Kindle, GoPro, Samsung and Sony, Bata, Mother Dairy and Prestige. The latest devices from Amazon, such as Kindle (10th generation), smart speaker with Alexa and Fire TV Stick, are also available at discounted prices.

Amazon is also displaying unique products such as Indian Karigar Holi Gulal, which are organic Holi colours (gulal), prepared from natural ingredients such as maize starch. Other products include ‘FunBlast Elephant Holi Water Gun Toy’ for kids and non-toxic Holi water balloons. Water-resistant bluetooth speakers are also on offer.

Social commerce firm DealShare, known for pioneering the community group buying (CGB) model in India, said that the Holi sales have been 10x of what it was last year.

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“There is a 92 per cent increase in sales compared to last year’s Holi,” said Sourjyendu Medda, founder and chief business officer, DealShare. Medda said the firm is witnessing huge demand across categories such as general merchandise, snacks, drinks, beverages, and grocery, especially from locations such as the National Capital Region, West Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Hyderabad. “Our private label line of grocery is doing really well and has created a huge difference in the market, as the prices are good,” Medda said.

Snapdeal, the other major e-commerce firm, said that it is hosting a Holi special store called ‘Aa Re Holi’, with up to 85 per cent discount on a variety of products such as natural holi colours, sweets, t-shirts, pichkaris, waterproof footwear and make-up items.

Online fashion platform Myntra, too, said it has witnessed strong demand on its platform in the run-up to the Holi weekend. “The festival of colours is also an occasion when people like to dress up. Hence, Indian wear and beauty categories are seeing a surge in demand,” said a Myntra spokesperson.

“In addition, kidswear and western wear continue to witness an increased uptake. With offices opening up, the workwear category is also gaining momentum,” the spokesperson added.