Amazon's ongoing Great Indian Festival has already broken last year's records

• Amazon’s Great Indian Festival is the longest this year as the brand hasn't set an end date yet and the sale is likely to go on for a month.
• This year’s sale has already broken some of the records set last year.
• Manish Tiwary, Vice President, Amazon India shares with us some of the trends that the e-commerce giant has seen so far, how the platform is working towards improving overall consumer experience, marketing strategy and much more.

Consumer sentiment seems to have picked up during Navratri after seeing a muted affair during Raksha Bandhan and Ganesh Chaturthi.

E-commerce firms Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, and Snapdeal together sold goods worth $3.1 billion in the first 4.5 days of the first festival season sale, revealed management consultancy Redseer.

This growth trajectory of e-commerce platforms in India testifies how customers are increasingly recognising the importance of comfort shopping within closed doors, and after seeing their businesses take a plunge in the first three months of the lockdown, more and more sellers are coming online with the increasing adoption of e-commerce platforms.

Similarly, Amazon India has also been seeing a year of firsts in its ongoing Great Indian Festival and is breaking last year’s records already. So far, the platform has recorded the highest number of first time shoppers, saw a 50% increase in new sellers and witnessed the strongest-ever start for SMBs. 91% of its first-time shoppers were from smaller cities who browsed the app in local Indian languages like Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. Total iPhones sold on Amazon in one day were more than the total iPhones sold in the entire festive sale period of last year.

The sale has also helped Amazon accelerate growth across its portfolio. Over 1 lakh customers bought Amazon devices, Echo and Fire TV devices. Kindle sales were around 2.5X higher than the first day of the sale last year.

Manish Tiwary, Vice President, Amazon India calls this year’s Great Indian Festival ‘Bharat’s biggest celebration on Amazon ever’ as Tier II and III towns take the forefront.

He further told us some of the trends that the e-commerce giant has seen so far, how the platform is working towards improving overall consumer experience, challenges of breaking the clutter in the e-commerce landscape, marketing strategy, and most demanded products on the platform.

Excerpts:

Q. The role of engagement and communication has never been more important, especially in today’s digital-first world. How are you making sure your communication during this year's Great Indian Festival is relevant to consumers?

These are unprecedented times and COVID-19 has impacted the sense of normalcy for everyone. This Great Indian Festival, our focus remains on providing reliability to customers, ensuring safety of employees and helping sellers as they get back on their feet. These include more than 6,50,000 sellers & SMBs including artisans, women entrepreneurs, emerging Indian brands and local store owners from programs like Karigar, Saheli, Launchpad and Local Shops. At the same time, we want to help customers find everything they need – from the latest mobile phone to groceries and get them delivered safely to their homes.

Our campaign with the ‘Khushiyon Ka Darwaza’ symbolizes the joy Amazon’s Great Indian Festival brings in the lives of this entire ecosystem of customers, sellers, delivery associates, brand partners and more.

Q. What are some of the exclusive deals you have on the platform to woo consumers?

This festive season, lakhs of Small & Medium Businesses (SMBs) are offering unique selection to customers helping them rebuild and accelerate their business in tough times. Over 4 crore products from Small & Medium Businesses (SMBs); products from over 20,000 local shops across 100 cities will be available during the Great Indian Festival. Customers across the country will have the opportunity to shop for unique products from thousands of Amazon sellers under various programs such as Local Shops, Amazon Launchpad, Amazon Saheli, and Amazon Karigar and enjoy deals/offers extended by lakhs of small businesses.

This year witnessed the strongest ever start for SMBs with record sales; over 5,000 sellers clock sales worth INR 1MM (10 lakh) in SMB pre-festive lead up & first 48 hours of the Great Indian Festival. With over 1.1 Lakh sellers receiving orders, we are humbled how sellers, brands and ecosystem partners nationwide have come together during these unprecedented times to spread joy across the country.

Q. What are some of the other trends you are expecting to see this festive?

At this moment in time, our focus is to ensure our customers get all that they need safely and that we are able to strongly help our small business partners with their business revival to manage through these challenging times. Customers recognize that ecommerce is the safest way for them to get what they need, and sellers know that e-commerce is the best way for them to serve their customers as their footfalls have been impacted.

We are seeing a 50% increase in new seller registrations vs pre COVID19. The sellers on Amazon.in have been receiving orders for consumer electronics, study from home essentials, kitchen & home appliances, smart devices, laptops, mobile phones, phone accessories, personal grooming products, apparel and more besides groceries and other essential products.

Q. With the on-going festive season, many other platforms will have their Sales days too. How do you then cut the clutter and make sure you win consumers? How will you be different from the other players in the segment?

As a customer-obsessed company, we remain focused on ways to serve the customers in the country everywhere and fulfil all their needs. Our focus remains on what is best for our sellers & customers. This Great Indian Festival is all about them.

Q. How are you working towards improving the overall consumer experience?

Tier II & III towns see a significant number of customers shop on Amazon.in, with many being first time customers. To address customer needs and enable millions of customers from India to discover the joy, convenience and benefits of online shopping, ahead of the festive season, they can shop in one of the six languages of their choice including English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.

In fact, the largest number of new customers shopped for the first time on Amazon.in; 91% of new customers came from smaller cities as customers experienced the Great Indian Festival in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.

Q. Do you anticipate people to buy more, considering a lot of people might have pushed buying things for the festive season?

With over 1.1 Lakh sellers receiving orders, 66% sellers, 91% of new customers, and 66% of new Prime sign-ups from small towns; shopping in 5 Indian languages; and orders from over 98.4% of India’s pin-codes in just 48 hours, this Great Indian Festival is truly Bharat’s biggest celebration on Amazon ever.

During the first 48 hours, top sold categories were Smartphones, Large Appliances and Consumer Electronics with leading brands OnePlus, Samsung, Apple and Xiaomi making record sales.

New products received a rousing response; popular new products were OnePlus 8T, Samsung M31 Prime Edition, OnePlus Nord (Gray Ash), Xbox Series S, Maggi 2 minute Desi Cheesy Masala, Samsung 6.5 kg fully automatic washing machine, new collection from BIBA & Max among over 1,100 new launches

Customers shopped for everything big and small

• Smartphones remained popular among customers: iPhone 11, Redmi Note Series, Redmi 9A, OnePlus 8T, OnePlus Nord and Samsung M31 Prime Edition were among the popular smartphones on Amazon.in; Total iPhones sold on Amazon.in in one day were more than the total iPhones sold in entire festive sale period of last year
• Popular appliances were fully automatic top & front load washing machines, direct cool refrigerators, air conditioners, microwave ovens and dishwashers
• Top-selling electronics were laptops, headphones, tablets, cameras and smartwatches. Customers also loved selection across security cameras and drones. Asus, Lenovo & HP were leading laptop brands; Samsung & Apple leading tablets, and TP Link & Netgear were leading in networking products
• TVs with Alexa OnePlus 43”, OnePlus 32” and Samsung 32” popular this season
• Smart bulbs and bedsheets in Home, water purifiers and mixer grinders in Kitchen
• Women’s kurtis, sarees, casual tops, t-shirts and athleisure popular in Apparel
• Suitcases, luggage sets and gold jewellery popular this season
• More customers are looking at gaming as a hobby – gaming consoles popular during GIF
• In health & hygiene categories, Savlon disinfectant Sprays, Whisper sanitary pads, Chyawanprash, Dettol & Dove bathing soaps see a spike
• Within grocery, products with dry fruits, spreads & cooking supplies were popular
• Vaseline & Ponds Body lotions, Dove & Wow shampoos, Lakme Kajal were popular beauty products
• For pet parents, Pedigree Adult Dog Food and Whiskas dry cat food were among the popular products
• Baby products such as diapers & skincare products like Himalaya baby lotion & Pampers anti rash diapers were widely sought after
• The Nerf rival blasters - a new launch in India was among the most sought after newly launched toys
• Treadmills in fitness essentials, grills, fertilizer and soil in Garden & Outdoors, Car care in Tools & Equipment also popular in the country

Amazon Devices

• Customers loved Alexa – Prime Early Access during the Great Indian Festival was the single biggest day of sale for Echo devices on Amazon.in
• Customers loved the new Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Stick Lite; streaming media player category sold nearly 2x units vs. the first day of GIF last year
• Over 1 lakh customers bought Amazon devices, Echo and Fire TV devices
• The Echo Dot (3rd Gen) and the All New Fire TV Stick were among the top 10 products sold on Amazon.in
• Kindle sales were more than 2.5X vs. first day of the sale last year