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It's Diwali time for marketeers in the online space, who are wooing the 37 million strong Indian online community with festival packages and Maha Diwali sales, where everything from diyas to mithai, jewellery, plasma TVs is available on attractive discounts.
"Diwali is the biggest shopping season in India and this pattern is represented in the online space as well. The online sales are expected to go up by more than 100 per cent," says Subho Ray, president, Internet and Mobile Association of India.
"From 810,000 who transacted the net during Diwali, it is likely to be around 12 lakh (1.2 million) this year. The online business conducted during Diwali last year was around Rs 115 crore (Rs 1.15 billion) which is expected to cross the Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.5 billion) mark this year," Ray told PTI.
While growth in the first few years was low, now online shopping is growing at a phenomenal rate. This year, we expect to double over the previous year and we expect the same trend to continue in the next few years also, says K Vaitheeswaran of Fabmall.com, one of the pioneers in online shopping.
In normal months, 85 per cent of orders are self purchases but during festivals like Diwali and Rakhi, the gifting orders increase to over 50 per cent. In Rakhi 2006, we shipped a record 12000 Rakhis on a single day all over the world compared to 5000 in 2005, says Vaitheeswaran, whose company is offering free shipping and money back guarantee.
On gifting trends, he says "this season, sweets and hampers have been low key. Top picks for gifting have been electronics like MP3 players, Tata-Sky satellite TV systems, Kitchen appliances, silk sarees," he says.
On ebay, an online shopping destination, which has put up an online Diwali sale, top buys include handsets, MP3 players and accessories, stamps, mobile sccessories and PC games, according to Deepa Thomas, company spokesperson.
Shopping at this time is primarily for gifting (like most Diwali buying in the offline space). Gifting an online purchase is much easier since most online portals take care of delivery across the country and some of them even deliver to select areas of the globe.
It is primarily the online community of 37 million strong that goes on the net for purchasing taking advantage of some benefits that online shopping provides ease of shopping, reviews of products available, ease of delivery and wide-range of gift products that you get under one roof, says Ray.
"Many casual Internet users make their first ever online purchase during Diwali. Overall, Diwali and the festive season witnesses an increase in online buyers, primarily shopping online for gifts," says Thomas.
However, Nitesh Kumar of TDI Mall says online shopping is definitely catching up, but the Indian mindset is such that they want to physically feel and see the product. Seeing is believing for them, more so during festivals, when they want to be double sure that what they are gifting has to be of good quality.
On gifting trends this season, he says imported wines are picking up in a big way. Chocolates too are coming up in a big way as a substitute to mithais.
Agrees Sandeep Madan of Nirulas chocolates, because of the variety available here and the shelf life, are emerging as a favourite gifting item both in the online and offline space.
Whether it is chocolates, wines, or plasma TVs, the trend extensively points towards luxury shopping, an emerging concept in the Indian market, says Devyani Raman of the Leading Brands of the World.