Customers in tier 2 cities and beyond drove majority of the sales for Amazon and Flipkart over the weekend as both platforms registered record openings for their annual festive season sales.

Amazon kicked off the Great Indian Festival at 12 pm on Saturday for Prime customers, with the sales opening up for all customers at midnight, while Flipkart also started with an early access to its Plus customers at 8 pm on Saturday before opening the sale for all users at midnight.

"Ninety one percent of the new shoppers during the sale came from tier 2 and tier 3 towns," said Amazon India head Amit Agarwal told CNBC-TV18 over the phone.

"One in two customers who shopped for phones and large appliances used affordability options," Agarwal added.

Flipkart said the number of transacting customers from tier 2 and beyond have doubled over the first day of the Big Billion Days sale last year.

"There is no doubt that e-commerce has not only lifted consumer sentiment but has also driven the industry to set new benchmarks. Affordability and value driven themes clearly are the pulsating chords for India and Bharat (rural India)," Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said in a statement.

Both companies have said they did not see any impact of an economic slowdown in the country, and said the sales would be bigger this year with new customers joining online shopping fray.

Forester Research has said that online retailers in India are expected to generate about $4.8 billion in sales during this year’s festive month (September 25 to October 29) , and this would mitigate the impact of the general economic slowdown.

However, the agency said that year-over-year growth in online retail spending during these main sale days will take a hit, from 93 percent in 2018 to 32 percent in 2019.

Here are some statistics from Amazon and Flipkart on day one of the festive sales:

Amazon

Amazon saw the single largest day of Prime sign-ups, with 66 percent of Prime members shopping in 24 hours coming from tier 2 and 3 towns.

More customers shopped on Amazon than ever before, with 91 percent of the new customers coming from tier 2 and 3 towns. Fashion attracted the most new customers closely followed by smartphones.

More than 400 million Indians had access to cashback and EMI offers with 100 percent more customers opting for EMI compared to last year, and 75 percent of them coming from tier 2 and 3 cities.

Biggest opening 36 hours ever for sellers as tens of thousands of sellers see at least one order.

Affordability programs enabled record number of customers upgrade to premium phones. Sales from premium brands like OnePlus, Samsung and Apple exceeded Rs 750 crore within 36 hours.

Flipkart

Three-time transaction growth during early access (from Flipkart Plus customers) as compared to 2018.

Number of transacting customers from tier 2 and beyond have doubled over compared to last year on the first day of the sale.

Flipkart affordability constructs see high uptake. Customers opting for affordability options spent 2.5 times more than other customers.

Travel is the fastest growing category on Flipkart, ahead of vertical players with 12-time growth compared to last year.

Over 2.3 million consumers engaged with games on the platform.

Close to 10 million new app downloads in less than a month in the run-up to the Big Billion Days Sale 2019.

First Published:Sept 29, 2019 9:04 PM IST