India e-commerce industry is forecast to grow 21.5% to reach a valuations of USD 74.8 billion by the end of 2022. Much of this amount is the results of high sales during festival.
Diwali is just around the corner. The past two years spent in hectic and reluctant celebration have whetted the appetite for a larger than life celebration this holiday season. This means that the retail markets is looking forward to the successful sales of the festive season. Even though the world is now operating almost at pre pandemic level, online shopping has only gained momentum & preference.
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The festival of light is a symbolic representation of the victory of good over evil, knowledge over ignorance, and light over darkness. Celebrated for more than five day in the Hindu months of Kartika, the festival is largely associated with the deities Lakshmi, goddess of prosperity, and Ganesha, god of wisdom & remover of obstacles.
The time leading up to the festival is spent in enthusiastic preparation for the celebration. Homes & offices are thoroughly cleaned, renovated and decorated. A variety of snack are prepared or purchased, family gatherings are planned, and of course, a lot of shopping is done.
Commercial Significance of Diwali
Diwali has traditionally been associated with prosperity and wealths creation. The auspiciousness of the festival is celebrated by the purchase of precious metal item such as gold & silver on the first day of this five day festival Dhanteras. The day is also considered auspicious for the purchase of expensive item such as property, cars, and others household appliances such as electronic.
The business community perform a religious ceremony of their account book to celebrate the start of the traditional business new year. This time is considered particularly conducive to starting new project & making new investment.
The Dalal Street stockbroker community has been practicing exchange muhurat on Diwali to celebrate a lucky start to the new year. Investor place token orders to hold them for a long period of time and traders record intraday profit, which normally allows Sensex to close on a positive note due to high trading volumes.
The Diwali festival is followed by the wedding season, adding to the euphoric shopping mood that prevails in the country. The shopping spree is fueled by irresistible limited-time deals and mega discount offered by brand through omnichannel marketing.
The Demarcation Year
This year will undoubtedly go down in history as the moment the world came to a standstill due to the Covid-19 pandemic. For more than six month, the global lockdown wreaked havoc on the economy, with businesses closing & people retreating to the safety of their homes.
As restrictions eased, the world slowly came back to life and the fight for normality began in earnest. In many ways, it was a kind of revival of the human race. A kind of demarcation. Since then, everything has been segregated into pre pandemic and post pandemic, including the retail market, especially for holiday shopping.
Reasons for the success of Diwali online sales
The shift to online shopping, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, has been one of the strongest catalysts driving the Diwali online sales campaign. Also, there are some other reasons why Diwali festival sales are seeing steady growth year after year.
Diwali Sales
The beginning of electronic commerce in India dates back to 1995 with the introduction of the Internet. The first wave of e-commerce in India was slow, inefficient & had little consumers acceptance. After the dotcom bubble burst in 2000, the e-commerce business in India was hushed & low key. It was only after 2005 that the e-commerce business developed significantly, especially in the areas of retail, groups buying, travel, and social interaction.
As the online shopping phenomenon grew & penetrated new market and reached wider audiences, industry heavyweights like Amazon, Flipkart, and Myntra became increasingly aggressive in their discount and sales. Festival sales became a huge phenomenon, with most sales scheduled around the Diwali season.
Ever since the e-commerce industry took a strong foothold in India, Indian e-retailers have given their customer a great reason to celebrate with deep discount, limited time offers and easy payment options during the Diwali season. Indian online shoppers have always shown a constant loyalty to discount & deals, a fact not lost on e-retailers.
E-tailer Initiatives
Online e-retailers are employing tool like flash sales, card offer, free delivery, and no-cost EMI for large ticket purchases. These tools make it easy for customer to make purchases. Flash sales often trigger impulse purchases by customer, especially on new product that are usually not discounted. Add to that the special reward attached to specific credit card that add up to deep discount and offers additional cash back. These initiatives are then combined with easy exchange/return policies and extended warranties, which are hard to resist and turn into successful sales.
Personalized Product Feed
A consumer purchase history is a mine of informations for the e-retailer. They keep track of the consumer buying habits and, based on purchasing preferences, feed the customers with products detail and upcoming offer through their social network, WhatsApp, etc.
Conclusion
What was just a decade ago a traditionals industry with customer shopping on certain sale day or weekend has become a finger activated industry that allows the customer the convenience of shopping from the comfort of their your home.
It’s no wonder, then, that the e-commerce industry has grown in popularity & become the preferred means of shopping. There is no doubt that it has a better markets penetration, a better catalog of products on a platforms and, in some cases, better offer to offer to the customers.