MUMBAI: Brands are actively offering festive deals and have already started preparations for Black Friday – every year there is a fierce struggle for each customer. According to forecasts of Admitad partner network, this year Indians will spend 15-20% more on online purchases during the sales against the background of the overall growth of Ecommerce spend in the country by 18.5% in 2024.
Admitad studied more than 200 million orders worldwide and more than 15 million
orders in India for 2023 and 2024 – both during the ordinary period and during November sales.
How will the sales go? Every year brands are shifting their focus more and more away from specific dates. The importance of certain festivities or Black Friday itself is steadily decreasing – ‘warm up’ period with discounts and special offers before the sales starts earlier and earlier, sometimes two to three weeks before the event itself. The main sale period also ‘blurs’ from one to three days to a week or
more.
Neha Kulwal, MD, India and APAC Mitgo said, “This trend took hold last year, and in 2024 companies are also planning not point discounts, but a whole period of increased customer activity with waves of special offers for certain categories of goods and products. There is moderate optimism among sellers: GMV of online purchases, according to Admitad calculations, increased by 18.5% in 2024. This allows brands to count on good demand during the sale period as well.”
What goods will Indians hunt for? Every year marketplaces increase their influence during sales. Last year they accounted for more than 58% of all online purchases on Black Friday against their usual 55% of sales during the regular period. This year the share of purchases through them slightly reduced to 53%, which means that the grip of large platforms is not that tight yet.
Leading product categories which, according to Admitad’s calculations, attracted the largest share of sales in 2023 were: Electronics (22,3%), Fashion (21,2%), Home & Garden (16,2%), Toys & Hobbies (8,5%), Beauty & Health (7,3%).
Tools (+105%), Beauty-products (+92%), Consumer Electronics (+81%), Toys And Hobbies (+65%) and Automobiles, Parts & Accessories (+65%) showed the most significant growth in the number of sales compared to the ordinary period.
Brands should take into account fresh trends in customer needs as well. For example, this year, online sales in the fashion category grew by more than 35%. Another record-breaker of growth this year are Electronics – sales in this category in India grew by 29% in 2024. Next come home goods and children goods with 20% and 18% of sales growth respectively.
Among online services, the undisputed champion of growth in 2024 is music and movie streaming services, which increased sales by more than 30%. Next in line is eHealth segment with 27% of growth in sales.
Promo codes, cashback and mobile apps are key to the success of brands: Last year the share of orders with the use of cashback during sales exceeded 20%, and in 2024, according to Admitad, Indians received cashback for 22% of purchases. The presence of a store on the cashback storefront page or the option to receive cashback for a certain product has become one of the main factors by which customers decide to buy.
Another manifestation of the smart shopping trend is the growing importance of coupons and promo codes. Their share in the total number of orders has increased to 13% in 2024. These tools are not new to brands, but the ways in which they are used have taken a step forward, both against the backdrop of tighter regulation on personal data tracking and because brands are looking to improve their effectiveness.
For example, Admitad launched its New Generation Promo codes tool in 2024, which allows brands to automatically assign promo codes to publishers (influencers, content platforms, etc.) based on how well they engage customers. It also solves the problem of cross-device tracking and bypasses ad blockers. In the first three months, the number of affiliate sales and targetted actions for brands using the tool grows by 30-40%. This shows that most companies still have huge untapped potential to grow sales through coupons and promo codes. But the leading role in this year’s sales will be played by mobile apps, whose influence in 2024 has skyrocketed. If last year they accounted for only 8% of orders, now it has exceeded 25%.
This is due to the spread and popularisation of smartphones among the country’s population and the big bet that brands are now making on mobile traffic.
