Smartphones lead festive sales surge driven by premiumisation

In this festive season, smartphones emerged as the top-grossing category on e-commerce platforms, with online purchases accounting for nearly 65 per cent of all smartphone sales, according to data from Datum Intelligence.

Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon also point to smartphones as the top grossing category.

Amazon noted that 5G smartphones in the budget segment (< ₹10K) claimed over a third of the market volume due to a wide selection from top brands like Realme, iQOO, Xiaomi, and others. Meanwhile, the premium smartphone segment (> ₹30K) saw the highest year-over-year (Y-o-Y) growth (among all price segments, in volume) driven by a wide range of selections, great deals, and payment options. Tier 2 & beyond cities contributed to more than 70 per cent of the premium smartphone sales, said Amazon in its statement.

Similarly, for Flipkart, premium and mid-premium android smartphones saw ‘robust growth’ with high interest in the AI-led features. Samsung dominated sales volume, capturing a 20 per cent market share, followed closely by Apple at 16 per cent during the initial phase from September 26 to October 6.

Commenting on Samsung’s performance, Abhilash Kumar, Industry Analyst at TechInsights said “Samsung had fantastic numbers in the first wave of festive season sales. This is driven by attractive deals and price cuts on products across price bands pertaining to the Galaxy A, M, and S, series.”

“The iPhone 15 was also very well received, clocking over a million units in sales, largely thanks to pure players offering competitive prices along with card discounts.” He further noted strong performances from brands outside the top five, mentioning Motorola’s double-digit growth driven by the success of its Edge 50 Fusion, G45, and G85 models.

E-commerce platforms collectively recorded total sales of nearly ₹1 lakh crore during the month-long festive season that concluded last week. Nearly half of the demand emerged in the first week alone, with goods worth ₹55,000 crore sold during Flipkart’s Big Billion Days and Amazon’s Great Indian Festival. Kumar noted that Samsung’s robust phone sales received a further boost due to the brand’s sponsorship of these flagship sales events on Flipkart and Amazon.

Premiumisation

Beyond smartphones, other product categories like grocery, beauty, and personal care products, home and kitchen items, comprised a significant portion of festive season sales, with a noticeable shift towards premiumization as more customers opted for top brands, experts noted. This trend towards premiumisation, coupled with easier access to credit, particularly no-cost EMI options, played a major role in driving sales. “No-cost EMI offered by financial institutions was pivotal during the festive season, as a substantial number of flagship phones were purchased on EMI through platforms like Flipkart and Amazon,” explained Kumar.

Flipkart witnessed a rise in demand of 17 per cent Y-o-Y with users opting for top brands. “Demand for premium large appliances grew by 30 per cent over last year, while the fashion and beauty premium portfolio saw an over 400 per cent spike vs business-as-usual (BAU) in categories like watches, fragrance, K-beauty, jewellery, handbags, sportswear, luggage, and kids-wear,” Amazon said in a statement.