Snapdeal claims 52% growth in sales volume this festive season

During the first Diwali sale, held between September 29 and October 6, Snapdeal said that its platform clocked more than 76 million visits in a week which is more than its monthly average.

Non-metro cities drive Snapdeal’s growth (REUTERS)

E-commerce firm Snapdeal on Monday said it has recorded 52 per cent growth in terms of volume during its first Diwali season sale over the previous year.

During the first Diwali sale, held between September 29 and October 6, Snapdeal said that its platform clocked more than 76 million visits in a week which is more than its monthly average.

"Snapdeal concluded its first Diwali sale of 2019 with record orders received, showing a massive growth of 52 per cent over last Diwali volumes. Given Snapdeal's focus and leadership in the Bharat-focused value merchandise, nine out of every ten orders received on Snapdeal were from non-metro towns across India," Snapdeal said in a statement.

The increase in volumes from smaller cities was a pan-India trend. However, cities like Nagpur, Surat, Vijayawada, Chandigarh, Panaji, Jamshedpur, Shimla and Guwahati emerged as the new e-commerce hotspots, with orders surging at least four-fold over the previous year.

"Over 120 cities and towns across the country registered at least 2 times volumes compared to last Diwali sales. These include cities like Satara, Anand, Bharuch & Pali (West India), Malerkotla, Roorkee, Jhansi & Haridwar (North India), Hazaribagh, Raniganj and Paradip (East India), Tezpur, Itanagar & Majuli (North-East India) and Khammam, Hassan, Miryalaguda and Bhimavaram (South India)," Snapdeal said.

Last week, Amazon India in its first festive season sales report said that it has witnessed about 3 times increase in unit sales from non-metro customers, while customers from over 15,000 pin codes joined its Prime programme (which is paid) with a 69 per cent increase in signups from small towns as compared to the previous year's festive season.

According to logistics firm Shiprocket , tier 2 and 3 cities are expected to contribute a higher percentage of orders during the 2019 festive season compared to the same period last year as shipments to tier 2 cities have already shown a 10 per cent year-on-year growth.