Marketplaces continue to strengthen their position and increase sales globally. In 2023, the amount shoppers spent on orders from marketplaces grew by seven per cent globally and by more than 20 per cent in India. This year, shoppers significantly increased purchases from the categories of toys, goods for mothers and auto parts.
Admitad partner network has analysed more than 120 million orders from marketplaces worldwide and more than 6 million orders in India to understand the changes in the industry in 2023. The study includes statistics from more than 150 marketplaces, including both global giants like Alibaba and Amazon and leading Indian marketplaces like Flipkart, Myntra, Nykaa and Ajio.
The largest number of orders were made by residents of Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Patna, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Lucknow, Jaipur, Guwahati.
The industry continues to grow against the backdrop of the global recession
Despite the challenges of the global economy, the Ecommerce industry continues to grow, and along with it, its brightest representatives – marketplaces – are developing. Having received a powerful growth impetus during the pandemic, they keep developing success due to new factors.
One of them is the rapid growth of mobile sales around the world – marketplaces are confidently working with mobile traffic and are able to take full advantage of the trend. The global share of mobile orders in all purchases from marketplaces increased from 22% to 34%. In India, the growth was also rapid – from 15% to 24%.
Mitgo MD Asia Pacific, India Neha Kulwal said, “The sales growth was also significantly influenced by various marketing support measures that marketplaces offer to brands that sell their goods through them. For example, Amazon Marketing Services continued to grow strongly in 2023, and many local marketplaces in India also apply similar methods to help brands on the site to maximize sales, and thus the profit of the marketplace itself.”
Indian buyers became more interested in toys, goods for mothers and car parts: In 2023, the average order value of a purchase from a marketplace in the world was $23, in India it was slightly less – $16 (grew by 6,4 per cent year on year).
According to Admitad’s estimates, globally, users’ interests over the last year have been mostly divided between fashion (24 per cent), electronics (17.1 per cent), home and garden goods (13.4 per cent), beauty products (seven per cent), toys and hobby goods (4.8 per cent), car parts (four per cent) and sport goods (3.6 per cent).
Compared to the previous year, the share of sales in the fashion and Home & Garden categories decreased significantly. However, Tools (3%) and Lights & Lightning (2.5%) moved closer to the top positions.
In India, the top categories look similar, but there are still significant differences – for example, the unconditional dominance of fashion purchases: clothes, accessories, shoes, watches.
Top product categories by their share in the total number of marketplace sales, 2023
Fashion – 31.4 per cent
Home And Garden – 20 per cent
Mother And Kids – 12.5 per cent
Electronics – 11.5 per cent
Beauty products – 7.6 per cent
Toys And Hobbies – 3.5 per cent
Lights And Lighting – 2.8 per cent
Car parts – 2.7 per cent
Sport goods – 2 per cent
Others – 6 per cent
Some categories showed the record-breaking pace of growth in number of orders in India:
Toys And Hobbies +32 per cent
Mother And Kids +29 per cent
Car parts +27 per cent
Lights And Lighting +26 per cent
Sports And Entertainment +24 per cent
Tools +21 per cent
Coupons and affiliate stores became more effective: Users continue to actively use cashback options when shopping on marketplaces – as in the previous year, in 2023 cashback services accounted for up to a third of all purchases attracted. Content marketplaces, affiliate stores, coupon services, contextual ads, social networks and mobile apps were the next most effective globally.
In 2023, there was a 17 per cent increase in sales through affiliate stores, which aggregate offers of goods and services from different brands’ websites and trading platforms and create thematic product feeds. Marketplace sales through coupon services also grew by more than 10 per cent.
According to Admitad, cashback services were also effective in India, where users used them in 22 per cent of all orders made. Content sites (17.5 per cent), coupon services (13 per cent), mobile apps (12.6 per cent) affiliate stores (12 per cent), social networks (10 per cent), and loyalty programmes (7.3 per cent) were the next most effective in attracting sales for marketplaces. Loyalty programmes and affiliate stores demonstrated the record growth of marketplace sales in the country – the number of orders through them increased by more than 30 per cent and 25 per cent respectively.
More and more marketplaces are also turning to affiliate marketing to accelerate sales growth. The number of partners willing to attract orders for a reward from advertisers is also growing. In 2023, their number in India increased by 12 per cent and the sum of their profits by 18 per cent.
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