Tier 3 cities drive e-commerce evolution in 2020, Flipkart’s new report reveals
Flipkart registered the highest growth for new sellers on-boarded from these regions. It also posted a 2.5x increase from pre-COVID* to the festive period in terms of native languages adoption.
Flipkart on Friday released a new report that sheds light on the evolution of e-commerce in 2020, the year that saw Covid-19 pandemic disrupt economies around the world. According to the e-commerce company, the pandemic led to millions of people turning to online shopping platforms. The transition was not limited in metros but also tier 3+ cities, it added.
“From changes in category preferences, the emergence of the “new essentials” to the adoption of native languages and surge in new-age forms of payments, this year has borne witness to an array of unique consumer trends,” said Flipkart in its report.
According to Flipkart, the company saw a new user growth of close to 50% right after the lockdown with tier 3+ regions posting the highest growth of 65% during the Unlock (July-September period) phase. Tier 2 and tier 3+ consumers also topped the time spent on the platform. It further pointed out that the adoption of native languages saw a 2.5x increase from pre-Covid to the festive period (January to November 2020).
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As expected, digital payments were also high this year. UPI adoption on Flipkart increased nationally by 4.5X from January 2020 to August 2020, with Maharashtra taking the lead with a 5.2X growth. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were the other states that were at the top of the list for UPI adoption on the Flipkart platform.
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Even as consumers benefited from a deeper coverage of e-commerce platforms, sellers also leveraged the e-commerce platform. On Flipkart, there was a close to 35% increase in sellers onboarding in 2020 in comparison with the same period last year. Interestingly, the new sellers came mostly from tier 2 and tier 3 regions such as Tirupur, Howrah, Zirakpur, Hisar, Saharanpur, Panipat and Rajkot. They primarily catered to categories such as Household needs, Women's Ethnic Wear, Grooming, Home Decor and Toys & School Supplies.
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Flipkart pointed out a change in priorities for consumers before, during and after the Covid-19 lockdown in India.
“Pre-Covid, the most searched products included Personal Care, Men's Clothing, Footwear and Women's Clothing. During the lockdown, Food and Nutrition, Household, Toys and Audio products witnessed the highest demand,” it added.
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