Online mart full of shoppers this Diwali

NEW DELHI: The virtual shopping streets are on a blast even before the Diwali crackers are set alight. Marketers of online shopping portals have lined up exciting offers for consumers to tap the pre-diwali sales bonanza. Offers such as gift vouchers and up to 22% cashback offers are all set to double the online sales this Diwali over the previous year. Gadgets which are expected to be the best sellers as customers are increasingly lapping up products such as LCD TVs, microwaves, MP3 players and digital cameras.

“Diwali is the biggest shopping season in India and one can have access to unlimited gifting options at e-shops. Since every brand runs a promotion during high purchase period, it creates a lot of confusion in the mind of the buyers and leads to an inefficiency in the market. Internet cures this by providing complete information just at the click of a mouse,” said an Indiatimes.com official.

Currently, Indiatimes.com is running a promotion where buyers are getting 22% cashback on all purchases. Similarly, Indiaplaza.in is running a promotion where a buyer would get a chance to win an e-scratch card that either offers Rs 5,000 cashback or a jewellery gift voucher of a similar amount on purchases of Rs 5,000. Another shopping portal Futurebazaar.com is also going to roll out its promotion in the coming week.

This Diwali, over 30 lakh people are likely to go shopping online, according to industry body Assocham, and the total e-shopping business is expected to more than double to Rs 5,500 crore mark this year against Rs 2,200 crore in 2006-07. The two weeks leading to Diwali are likely to contribute almost 15% of this.

According to marketers, last week, among the top picks for gifting included products such as LCD TVs, washing machines, MP3 players, microwave ovens and mobile handsets. “We have increased inventories and offers in these categories to cater to the increasing demand. Diwali sales are likely to contribute 12%-15% to the annual sales,” said Futurebazaar.com senior marketing manager Rahul Sethi.

Indiaplaza.in is offering combo offers such as Apple iPods with chocolates and dry fruit boxes with digital cameras. “Last week, our online sales increased by 300% as against the corresponding period last year. Diwali sales alone contribute 50% to the sales this month and almost 5% to the annual sales,” said Indiaplaza.in chief operating officer K Vaitheeswaran.

Online shopping portals are not just getting orders from large cities in India. “Only 30% of orders come from the top eight cities and the rest come from small towns and cities. Close to 20% of the orders come from abroad,” said Mr Vaitheeswaran. Futurebazaar.com has so far received 50-55% of orders from top six big cities.