Emerging out of COVID-induced inertia, e-commerce is bullish on big festive revival

E-commerce has transformed the way business is done in India. The Indian e-commerce market is expected to grow to $200 billion by 2026 from $38.5 billion in 2017. Much of the growth for the industry has been triggered by an increase in Internet and smartphone penetration. The ongoing digital transformation and acceleration in the country is expected to increase India’s total Internet user base to 829 million by 2021 from 636.73 million in 2019. With the COVID-19 pandemic showing no signs of abating, e-commerce players have seen explosive growth as consumers under lockdown have transitioned to online buying. Everything seems to be going in the right direction for the e-commerce players – starting from D-Mart, Big Basket, Jio Mart, Amazon, Flipkart and Grofers, to name a few, everyone is in the race to capitalise on the situation. The festive season gives an added impetus to this business.

Will e-commerce continue to delight the customers?

While the festival cheer is in the air, there is still a lot of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 situation. We have witnessed a drastic shift in consumer behaviour and sentiments during and post the lockdown. People are not venturing out to make their purchases as frequently as they did in the pre-COVID period. The shopping lists include more of essentials, hygiene and household cleaner products, immunity boosters, along with consumer durables. With Dussehra/ Durga Puja and Diwali in the next few weeks, it remains to be seen how brands will reach the last mile as malls and retail outlets are yet to be fully operational or see the increase in footfalls.

On the other hand, e-commerce portals are seeing increasing traction and business and are expected to be the key driver of sales for many brands during this festive season, especially in the smaller towns where there is a steep increase in demand as compared to the metro cities.

How brands are gearing up online?

The customers need to be serviced and products need to be made available ahead of the festivals. While COVID-19 conditions and the uncertainty in the market might see consumers refrain from making big ticket purchases, still a revival in consumer sentiments is expected, which will in turn see more customers investing in new products and consumer durables as well as gifting family and friends at a time when personally visiting them might not be possible.

Gearing up for the festival demand, brands are beefing up their operations on the e-commerce and online platforms. They are providing adequate information and ensuring that customers are able to transact with ease. Most importantly, websites are being refurbished to present their products well so that customers are able to engage with the brands and are able to get a rewarding and enhanced experience online. Besides that, brands are aligning with major players like Amazon, Flipkar, TataCliq, Paytm and Jio Mart to meet the festival demand. Several brands have also launched their own online purchase portal, transitioning from offline to online in order to increase reach, thus bringing their customers much closer to the real-life shopping experience, which they are currently missing.

Categories that will leverage e-commerce in a big way

According to the Criteo Holiday report 2020, after months of being heavily impacted by COVID-19 restrictions, followed by nationwide disruption of shipping of products, online retail is back to pre-COVID-19 numbers and rising. The report highlights that goods from categories such as flowers & gifting increased by more than 343 per cent in August 2019, compared to average in July. The food & beverage category saw 70 per cent increase in sales during Raksha Bandhan in India this year. This clearly indicates that the retail and e-commerce industry in India has a positive outlook and the digital disruption has heightened the awareness about e-commerce and online shopping in the recent times. With the options of many channels available online, brands and retailers should deploy omnichannel strategy to ensure that the end consumers enjoy shopping both online and offline.

Adgully spoke to a few industry leaders and experts in the e-commerce business on how e-commerce will be an important channel for most brands this festive season. Commenting on the same, the spokesperson for Amazon India said that these are unprecedented times and COVID-19 has impacted the sense of normalcy for everyone. “This festive season, our focus will continue to remain on enabling sellers to sell and accelerate their growth and help them get back on their feet. These include lakhs of sellers and SMBs, including artisans, women entrepreneurs, emerging Indian brands and local store owners from programs like Karigar, Saheli, Launchpad and Local Shops. At the same time, we want to help customers find everything they need – from the latest mobile phone to groceries and get them delivered safely to their homes,” he added.

According to, Taranjeet Singh, Managing Director, SEA and India, Criteo, “The e-commerce industry is going through a golden phase, where mega sales like the Big Billion Days mark the onset of a binged shopping spree during the festive season. From enabling seamless omnichannel experience to a massive shift towards digital revolution, this festive season witnesses a rise in the in-app sales with significantly increased online traffic. According to our Holiday Report, the week of Big Billion Days represented 27 per cent more sales, 19 per cent increase in traffic, along with 28 per cent YoY increased sales in categories such as flowers, gifts, food and beverages. This digital wave is expected to go a long way accelerating growth and creating a win-win scenario for both customers as well as the retailers.”

Shirish Agarwal, Head - Marketing Communications & Brand, Panasonic India, opined that the prolonged lockdown phase has affected consumer behaviour and has altered their consumption pattern. Prioritising safety and convenience, people have embraced e-commerce to shop for all items from the comforts of their homes. At the same time, he added, “However, since the time retail has opened up, with appropriate social distancing and hygiene norms within the shops, consumers are utilising both the channels as per their convenience. Therefore, at Panasonic, we have adopted an omnichannel strategy to drive sales through both online and offline platforms. Customers are now considering contactless routes, resulting in increased usage of e-commerce platforms (especially in metros and urban markets) to purchase essential home appliances.”

Commenting on Panasoni’s festive season strategy, Agarwal informed that activity had already begun with their Onam campaign 'New Dreams. New Celebrations'. “Driven by the positive consumer sentiments, we are expecting an uptick in demand for value-based products leading to a steady growth in sales. From a marketing perspective, we have opted for an intelligent marketing mix for AdEx with digital playing the key role – as it aids in performance marketing. Digital has always been our key mainstay for communication when it comes to connecting with our consumer base and TV as a medium for reach and brand building at the evoked stage of the consumer purchase cycle. So, we plan to continue that way. Additionally, for our rural consumers, we have introduced various localized, vernacular initiatives for a better brand connect. For instance, Panasonic demo vans comprising of our products provide a hands-on, personalised experience. For the customers who are using feature phones in rural markets, we have made our SMS and IVR services available to serve them better. We further plan to do hyper local/geo targeting digital campaigns through these localised content for them to have a seamless experience,” he further said.

With people continuing to stay at home, Grofers expects a boost in sales during the festive season. Prashant Verma, Head - Marketing, Grofers, commented, “We have several consumption events, starting last the week of September through the second week of November, till Diwali. Each festive category will come into consumer consideration – namely dry fruits, chocolates & sweets and general merchandise for gifting as well as home cleaning and personal care for self-consumption. Currently, value-driven products have become more relevant than ever due to shrinking discretionary incomes.”

Verma further added that Grofers is very optimistic about the festive season and is ramping up the supply chain operations by adding more facilities and staff to ensure a seamless service experience and meet the heightened festive season demand. “With customers across India shifting to shopping online during the lockdown, we have witnessed a shift towards online grocery shopping, and expect it to remain that way. We are going heavy on digital this time with a 70 per cent share of media spends. Within Digital, leading OTTs and shorter brand films on YouTube, Facebook have served us well and this trend will continue for the festive period as well,” he added.

A spokesperson for Big Basket remarked, “Year on year, the festive period brings with it a lot of excitement in offline and online sales, and Big Basket also sees similar trends, particularly in Dry fruits, Mithai, Cleaning and Household goods, General merchandise and other festival related categories. We are confident about a similar uptick this year.”

With lockdown rules easing up across cities and many businesses coming back into action, brands are set to bet big this festive period to attract customers. With digital screen time increasing significantly over the last 6-7 months, marketers will likely follow suit and invest a large portion of their spends on digital media. That said, we expect TV and print also to see significant investments during this period.