Shopping FOMO? Indians spend ₹29K cr online ahead of festive season

• The first four days of the ecommerce sales season clocked ₹29,000 crore, says Redseer.
• This year, Indian shoppers hurried to book products ahead even before the sales season started.
• The Pre-book or Price lock feature allows users to lock-in the prices of high value products, before the sale.
  

It’s weeks before Dussehra and Diwali, but Indians are not holding their horses when it comes to shopping online. The first four days of the ecommerce sales season clocked in sales to the tune of ₹29,000 crore, says Redseer.

This is around 16% higher than the gross merchandise value (GMV) in the same period last year. The report adds that the fear-of-missing-out or FOMO mood has set into Indian shoppers who have hurried to book products even before the sales season started.

Many consumers took advantage of the ‘Pre-book/Price lock’ features, the report said. The industry-first feature allows users to lock-in the prices of high-value products, even before the festive sale starts.

“Due to this feature, along with attractive deals on high average selling price (ASP) items and easy financing options like No-Cost EMIs, consumers locked in their choices in advance to avoid FOMO on these deals later during the actual festive sale period,” said Redseer.

Accordingly, Day 0 or the Early Access Day, saw a 10 times increase in sales over the business as usual (BAU) for e-commerce websites running sales. The first day saw an over 7 times increase in sales over BAU.

"Premiumization as a theme is clearly being seen in this festive season as consumer discretionary spending in high ticket categories has done well. Further, the steady growth in overall sales and high ASP categories reinforces the belief in the strength of the Indian consumption story,” said Mrigank Gutgutia, partner, Redseer.

Categories like fashion, beauty & personal care, home, amongst others may gain traction in the second half of the Week 1 festive sale, the consulting firm says.

Apart from quantity, the quality of this year’s sales are also improving. E-commerce companies have increased focus on faster deliveries and improved customer experience. That has led to lower cancellations which is generally rife during the festive surge in sales.

Moreover, the pre-book feature has allowed them to gauge demand better prior to the sale period — be ready for surge and fulfill orders in a quick and orderly manner.