E-commerce trade in India's third-tier cities surges as economic demand recovers

Recently, according to foreign media reports, during the festival activities launched by Snapdeal, Amazon and Flipkart, e-commerce trade sales in India's third-tier cities such as Dhanbad, Karimnagar, Gorakhpur, Chittor, Kurnool, Guntur and Vizag surged, and they are the main cities for sales orders, indicating that India's economic demand is recovering.

According to data, Tier III cities in India account for nearly half of the orders in sales on various shopping portals, with TVs and laptops selling the most in the major appliances and electronics categories respectively. In addition, one in five customers choose to replace their smartphones.

On the eighth edition of The Big Billion Day sale organized by Walmart-backed Flipkart, a Flipkart spokesperson said: “In the first few days, Tier III cities such as Patna, Lucknow and Vizag led the customer demand along with top metros, with nearly half of the orders coming from Tier III cities and beyond. Categories such as mobile phones, electronics, large appliances, lifestyle, general merchandise and household witnessed the highest demand in India.”

These trends indicate that the income level of Indian residents has improved and economic activities have continued to recover after the impact of the second wave of COVID-19 in the first quarter . In addition, it can also indicate that small cities are more widely accepting online shopping. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Indian government's blockade restricted the movement of people and caused some offline local shopping malls to close, which gave online e-commerce more room for development.

Later, Amazon India Vice President Manish Tiwary said that during the Indian Festival, the sellers with the highest single-day sales increased by 60% year-on-year, and the number of sellers receiving orders from second- and third-tier cities increased by 21%. Tiwary emphasized that Prime membership subscription is still the favorite of Indian customers, and currently two-thirds of new Prime membership registrations come from second- and third-tier cities.

Meanwhile, Indian e-commerce company Snapdeal said that 43% of its orders came from tier-III cities. "Many tier-III cities such as Dhanbad, Karimnagar, Gorakhpur, Chittor, Kurnool, Srinagar, Guntur, Alwar, etc. have seen higher sales than last year. Large cities such as Pune, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, etc. have seen an upward trend in orders," a Snapdeal spokesperson said in a statement.

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