Early trends from this year’s e-commerce sales

Why read this story?

Editor's note: For all the hoopla around startup sectors in India like fintech and edtech, they still don’t hold a candle to e-commerce in terms of economic spends, customer (if not user) base and reach across socio-economic segments. Ever since Flipkart came up with the first Big Billion Days in 2014, nothing comes close to the scale of business and operations that is Indian e-commerce, led by the duopoly of Flipkart and Amazon India, and those riding their coattails like the one-time giant Snapdeal, challengers like Reliance’s JioMart and Ajio, and new social commerce darlings like Meesho. Why this sector is important is because it directly reflects the state of the $800 billion retail market in India, even though its overall contribution is still nascent. From our annual festive sales analysis last year: For Indian e-commerce, the October-November festive sales period is akin to the finals of a tournament. Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon’s Indian arm spend months prepping every year for the Diwali extravaganza. Year after year, each boasts ever greater numbers of customers, sellers, shipments, and near-magical sales figures, which should …