Flipkart’s The Big Billion Days Brings Festive Cheer like Never Before

KOCHI/BENGALURU:
As Flipkart’s The Big Billion Days 2020 draws to an end, it has yet again reaffirmed the role e-commerce plays in uplifting consumer consumption sentiment and catalyzing growth for local MSMEs. This Big Billion Days showcased the undying passion and entrepreneurship of sellers who took to digital commerce to bring festive cheer for Indian consumers. It showcased the power of partnerships when brands and kiranas joined hands to fulfil consumer aspirations while also creating more employment opportunities.

Nandita Sinha, Vice President – Customer Growth & Engagement, Flipkart said, “Flipkart’s aim this festive season has been to bring resilience back into the community. The remarkable enthusiasm from consumers has ushered in green shoots of recovery for everyone across the value chain. TBBD 2020 has been a celebration of sellers, artisans, kiranas and Wishmasters, who have delivered unmatched value to our consumers. The revival in demand and resurgence of consumption is expected to remain even after TBBD, as we continue to uplift the entire ecosystem. This was also the first completely virtual TBBD, as we adapted to the
advent of a ‘new normal’ and its success comes on the back of the hard work of our teams across verticals and locations.”

Kindling progress
This year TBBD saw 1.5X number of transacting sellers compared to last year, amongst whom more than 35% witnessed 3X more sales vis-a-vis TBBD 2019. The number of crorepati sellers went up 1.5X and the number of Lakhpati sellers saw a 1.7X jump. Flipkart marketplace has in fact seen 40,000 Lakhpati sellers post COVID-19; reinforcing the trust MSMEs have shown on e-commerce.

This Big Billion Days further brought forth small businesses from smaller towns. Within the 35%+ new seller base this BBD, around 60% of the sellers were from Tier II and Tier III towns. The cherished Flipkart Samarth program for artisans and weavers saw a 7X growth in the number of sellers. With the program reaching 7X more cities; 60%+ Samarth sellers came from Tier II and beyond cities with top performing categories being handloom cotton saree, home decor etc.

In the first 5 days, Flipkart has already delivered 10 million shipmentswith over 3.5 million shipments delivered by its Kirana partners (compared to 1 million deliveries last BBD 19), between Oct 16-21 across Mobiles, Fashion, Electronics, BGMH and home furnishing categories. These deliveries were made across the country ranging from Indo-Pak border in Gujarat to 5,000 feet above sea level in Siliguri, West Bengal and through the jungles of Gir forest.

Digital payments boost India’s shopping aspirations:
This year’s TBBD reached far and wide with digital and financial constructs such as EMIs and Pay later that enabled consumers to realise their aspirations and shop hassle free. This year TBBD witnessed more than 55% increase in digital payments transactions on Flipkart with a sharp increase in the New to digital customer base. Customer savings through various bank and wallet led offers were 1.6X of last year.

Flipkart also partnered with Paytm and designed value offers specially for low ticket size purchases that have contributed to 3X higher adoption in categories which are known to be cash dominant such as lifestyle, beauty and general merchandise, home, mobile accessories and more.

EMI options and Pay Later were an enabler of credit for customers during TBBD, with Pay Later customers clocking in 7X higher spends and EMIs showing 1.7X higher adoption in the sale. The Flipkart Axis Bank Co-branded credit card also witnessed huge adoption with the transaction on the co-branded credit card going up 5X vis-a-vis TBBD 2019. Electronic Gift Vouchers (EGVs) too have been a favorite for customers as this construct witnessed a 40% jump this year compared to last year.

Key category highlights
Mobiles
● 2X growth in customers visiting the mobiles category this BBD
● Premium segment of smartphones saw a growth of 3.2X, predominantly driven by Apple, Google and Samsung phones
● 30% growth in customers adopting for product exchange and 46% growth in adoption of bank offers compared to BBD2019
● 41% adoption on the industry-first Flipkart Smart Upgrade Plan with Samsung
● Realme has seen 2X growth in BBD 2020 over BBD 2019
● POCO did higher numbers in BBD 2020 than entire 2019

Fashion
● 1500 new cities shopped for fashion this TBBD
● Top brands were Puma, Saara, ADIDAS, Metronaut and Nike
● A 51% growth in customers from Tier II+ markets, over TBBD 2019
● 16+ million products sold in total by more than 40,000 unique brands/labels in fashion

Large Appliances
● Bharat (Tier III) customers drove the sale of large appliances with nearly 50% demand coming from the region for this ASP category
○ Over 500 brands made available their large products to millions of customers
○ 1 in every 35 people was a small office / home office business owners
● 1 in every 6 customers who bought appliances opted for Complete Appliance Protection
● 1 TV was sold every 2 seconds and 1 Microwave was sold every 14 sec

Electronics
● The electronics catego
ry witnessed a 2x YOY Growth this BBD, with laptops, desktops followed by audio, IoT, camera and tablet being top selling
○ Nearly 3.5 Million Audio devices & accessories where 1M headphones were sold by the end of day 1
○ 11 headphones sold every second till day 1 while Apple Airpods sold 1 every 4 seconds
○ 1 Home theatre/soundbar sold every 2 seconds
■ 3x YOY growth in premium devices
■ 1 in 4 audio sold was premium – Apple, Sony, Bose were the top brands
○ 10x YOY growth in True Wireless segment against last year BBD

Furniture
● WFH furniture segment witnessed the highest growth in the furniture category
● Flipkart set-up almost 50000 WFH desks all over India, and furnished 1 Indian house in every 3 seconds
● 1.5 orders per second were placed for furniture with 75% of the customers making prepayments
● Customers opted for 3-year furniture maintenance plan
● Some key micro cities which drove significant demand were Chanasma, Barkagaon, Balijipeta, Chelakkara, Bhatpara etc. Beauty, General Merchandise and Home (BGMH)
● BGMH saw a 100% growth in units as compared to TBBD 2019, with 40% of the units sold contributed by BGMH in this BBD.
● 1.4X growth in grooming 3x growth for cookware, 2.5X for pressure cookers and 2x for choppers, 10X growth in bakeware, 3X growth in cleaning supplies.
● 2.2X growth in units this festive season in Food, Nutrition and Healthcare category, with customers buying festive offerings such as Cadbury Bournvita and Celebrations packages along with daily needs such as Saffola Oil, Dabur Chyawanprash and Honey, Happilo and Granola California Almonds Offices & Institutes
● Almost 1,00,000 offices and institutes shopped online and availed GSTIN.
● Offices and institutes from New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat, Hyderabad, Chennai, Jaipur and Kolkata led the top cities chart from where demand was seen.
● Top categories included mobile handsets, laptops, television, Wireless earphones, bluetooth headsets, smart watches, routers, power banks and furniture such as beds, Sofas and sectionals amongst others.

2GUD
● 3.5X growth this TBBD, in comparison to TBBD 2019, while the non-branded vertical across home, fashion and decor saw a growth of 4.3X

BBD Specials
● 20X growth over last year, with consumer electronics and fashion being the key drivers Flipkart Video
● BBD Muqabala was the best-performing interactive show, as users from across India engaged with this unique entertainment concept
● The top 10 cities that witnessed the highest engagement on FK Video were New Delhi, Bangalore,Hyderabad ,Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Patna, Gurgaon, Lucknow

Chitra Vyas, Shopping Whopping [Hyderabad], Flipkart Seller said: “We started getting flooded with orders as soon as the sales kicked off during Early Access.
That day, my team and I stayed in the office the whole time and continued doing so for the next five days as well. We used to go home only for an hour or two because we had to ensure that our customers get their orders right on time. We divided our staff into shifts and arranged for food, stay, and sleep in the office premises itself. We had a fully charged working atmosphere and my friends also came to support me in packaging and sales. This BBD has been extra special as we all came together while spending so much time apart in the last few months. My business has seen a huge growth in these last six days and I am equally pumped for the
upcoming festive days too.”

Raju Lunawath, Amazestore [Bangalore], Flipkart Seller said: “I have been a seller on Flipkart, dealing in the electronics category. There was such a pent-up demand seen by my customers that my business saw massive growth in the last six days. The experience was amazing and the demand surpasses all my previous growth seasons with Big Billion Days. Every time the festive season shows me great successes, I feel proud of taking the decision to become an online seller. Flipkart has been a great support for me through all these years and I am happy that together we were able to bring a successful festive sale to customers across the country.”

Doma Tamang, Ranipool Store (Kirana in Gangtok) said: “I have been delivering in the hills of Gangtok for a year now apart from handling my store. This region is not motorable and therefore I deliver by foot and with the Big Billion Days, an increasing number of consumers are ordering which is also helping increase in income and I’m able to better support my family. There has been a drastic increase in orders and I’m delivering almost 40-50 orders every day.”