Amazon’s The Great Indian Festival saw more than 50 percent sales from Tier 2 and 3 cities

Over 80 percent of new customers for Amazon's The Great Indian Festival sale came from smaller cities and towns even as Prime membership grew 3x across the country.

It’s festival time in India. Offline, the celebrations may have just started, but online, the sales have just ended. Shoppers were pampered with discounts and cashbacks by every ecommerce platform and responded by spending a staggering $2.3 billion over the last five days, topping all records, according to RedSeer Consultancy. Amazon India backed this up with a statement that this year's Great Indian Festival posted record sales across popular categories over October 10–15, preceded by a 12-hour Prime Early Access.

Amazon India also saw more than 50 percent of sales come from Tier 2 and 3 cities; over 80 percent of new customers who came online were from these cities. New customers on Amazon's recently launched Hindi website grew 2.4x vs a normal business day. 

Amit Agarwal, Senior Vice President and Country Head, Amazon India, said: “We have received an overwhelming response to the fifth Great Indian Festival, with sales in the first 36 hours nearly surpassing the entire first wave last year and the event exceeding our most aggressive plans across all categories...we are humbled that Amazon.in is trusted by India to find, discover, and buy anything online.”

• Amazon saw deliveries to customers across locations like Solan (HP), Pinjore (Haryana), Malda (WB), Angul (Odisha), Havelock (Andaman & Nicobar Islands), Mavelikkara (Kerala), Kotdwara (Uttarkhand), Hapur (UP), Mundra (Gujarat), Tinsukia (Assam), and Dumka (Jharkhand), among others.
• Smartphones had their biggest season ever, with Xiaomi selling over 1 million devices in a day, OnePlus with sales of over Rs 400 crore in a day, and premium phones sales exceeding a month of all-India online sales.
• Sales of large appliances in a single day exceeded that of the entire first wave for last year's festive sale, with more than 50 percent of sales coming from Tier 2 cities and beyond. 
• Fashion emerged as the biggest category in terms of units sold and new customers acquired, with 63 percent orders coming from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. 
• It was also the biggest ever day for all Amazon Devices with the all-new New Echo Dot selling out within 48 hours.
• Two out of three customers benefited from affordability made available through exchanges, EMIs (including no-cost EMIs) and bank offers.
• Sellers who participated in the Great Indian Festival for the first time saw sales climb 300 percent vs an average business day, with 7,000 sellers crossing the Rs 1 million mark; about 50,000 sellers recorded at least one order in the sale.
• New customers on the Amazon Hindi website grew 2.4x vs a normal business day.