Driven by about 140 million shoppers, India is likely to witness Rs 90,000 crore worth online gross merchandise value (GMV) in the festive month this year — up 18-20 per cent from last year’s festive month sales, a report showed on Friday.

Marking the 10th year of e-commerce festive season sales, the industry is expected to clock the GMV of Rs 5,25,000 crore for the entire year, according to the report by market research firm Redseer Strategy Consultants.

Over the last 10 years, Indian e-tailing has transformed almost entirely as the annual GMV for the overall e-tailing industry has grown almost 20 times in the period.

The 10th festive season sale period is even more significant this year considering the recent slowdown in consumption and the almost 3 years of external shocks on the economy, the report mentioned.

“Over the last several quarters, we are seeing enhanced GMV contributions from categories beyond electronics. This is good for the ecosystem as it shows consumers’ willingness to purchase multiple categories online and more brands coming to cater to their needs,” said Mrigank Gutgutia, Partner at Redseer.

Continuing with this trend, “we expect increasing GMV contributions from non-electronics categories like fashion, beauty and personal care, home and general merchandise and more this festive period”, Gutgutia added.

There is persistent “premiumisation” leading to rising average selling prices (ASPs), and increasing ads and promotion revenues will possibly make this year’s festive season the most efficient from a margin perspective, according to the report.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands are likely to grow 1.6 times as fast as the broader e-tailing market.

In terms of city-tier wise growth, metros have been growing faster than tier 1 and 2 the last few quarters.

“However, we expect robust growth across city tiers this festive season,” said the report.

Additionally, new-age technology solutions like generative AI being more widely adopted in multiple use-cases during the sale period will also lead to better and novel consumer experiences and drive stronger growth momentum, it added.

Also read: Indian Tricolour sales yield huge bananza for mid-level retailers