The 2024 festive season sale has wrapped up on a positive note, with order volumes higher by over 14% YoY, as per the analysis by Unicommerce, an e-Commerce enablement SaaS platform. The period also witnessed a GMV growth of over 18% compared to the Diwali sales in 2023.
The analysis highlighted that while the entire sale period presented multiple purchase opportunities, most of the buying happened during the initial days of the season sale. Exciting discounts offered continued throughout the month-long sale event, including sales for Navratri, Dussehra, Dhanteras, Diwali followed by Govardhan Puja and Bhai Dooj.
Based on the analysis of orders processed on Unicommerce’s platform, relatively new e-Commerce categories that were the top performers this year included travel accessories and health devices which noted a significant over 100% YoY order volume growth for each category. The gaming accessories segment also witnessed a remarkable over 85% YoY order volume growth during this period.
Other traditional categories which made a strong impression this festive season were beauty and makeup products with a whopping over 100% order volume growth this season as compared to the previous year. Toys, baby products and kids apparel also recorded higher order volumes with over 50% and 30% YoY growth respectively. Dietary foods, healthy snacks and supplements as well as kitchenware products noted over 40% and 30% order volume growth respectively during this period as compared to the festive sale last year.
Tier III cities and beyond areas outperformed tier II towns with higher market share of 36.4% in terms of order volumes as compared to that of tier II towns which stood at 23.5%. The market share of tier I cities and metropolitans was however the highest this year at 40.1%.
Brands and e-Commerce companies continue to tackle order returns with the help of technology as the festive rush puts a greater load of orders on these platforms. Some of the categories that saw reduction in order returns this year were electronics and gaming accessories where returns fell from 20.5% in 2023 to 16% in 2024. The Books segment also noted reduced returns which accounted for 14% in 2023 and were down to 11.5% in 2024. The travel accessories category also saw a decrease in order returns from 20.2% in 2023 to 18% in 2024.
The e-Commerce sale events continue beyond the festive season sale, with many more upcoming sales, including the Black Friday Sale, Christmas Sale and the Year-end Sale.
