New Delhi, Oct 16 (PTI) Walmart-owned Flipkart on Friday said 50 per cent of new customers on its platform who shopped on the first day of its Big Billion Days (BBD) sale were from tier-3 cities and beyond.

Flipkart, which is hosting its annual BBD sale from October 16 to 21, said it is focused on driving value for customers, and progress and growth for sellers, MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) and artisans.

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"Along with the momentum witnessed from metros and tier-2 cities, 50 per cent of new customers have been from tier-3+ cities across categories," a statement said.

It added that the 'Home' category saw a surge in 53 per cent new customers, while 'Large Appliances' plus 'BGM' (Beauty and General Merchandise) categories each witnessed a near 50 per cent increase in new customers, all from tier-3 cities.

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Flipkart said affordability constructs were driving consumption.

"There has been a perceptible shift towards Digital India, with a 75 per cent increase in prepaid transactions, which showcased a strong endorsement for digital payments as consumers continue to maintain social distancing when making purchases," it said.

EMI options served as a good trigger to keep the festive spirit buoyant, and one out of every five purchases in high-ticket segments like mobile phones, furniture, large appliances and electronics were driven through an EMI construct, it added.

Amazon Great Indian Festival has been started for its Prime members but for non-prime members, the sale will begin from October 17.

E-commerce companies see a large chunk of their business coming in during the festive sales, and they make significant investments ahead of time to ramp up their capacity to be able to handle the spike in orders. Festive season sees players holding multiple sale events, timed around Dussehra and Diwali.

A report by RedSeer estimates that festive sales this year are expected to almost double and touch USD 7 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) as compared to USD 3.8 billion in the same period last year.

Snapdeal, which is holding its 'Kum Mein Dum' sale, said it had received orders from 3,417 towns across India on Day 1, and 30 per cent of orders were placed by new users.

"Nearly 30 per cent of the total orders on Day 1 were from first-time users. Consistent with Snapdeal's positioning towards users in non-metro cities, nearly 90 per cent of orders were from tier II and III towns," it said in a statement.

While populous tier-2 and 3 cities like Nagpur, Vijayawada, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Ranchi, Patna and Guwahati continued to drive orders on Snapdeal, smaller cities like Sagar (Madhya Pradesh), Raniganj (West Bengal), Gurdaspur (Punjab), Una (Gujarat) also clocked impressive order volumes, it added. They exceeded their last year's festive volumes on the first day of Snapdeal's sale, it said.

"Our early analysis shows that users have shown a marked preference for buying everyday use products by utilising deals and additional discounts to maximise value for their purchases.

"There is also a strong demand for products for festive celebrations at home," a Snapdeal spokesperson said.

The company said customers bought small kitchen appliances, multi-function kitchen tools, bedsheets and bedcovers, smart cleaning items, traditional products like mandirs and pooja thalis, and fitness products and gym essentials. Snapdeal's sale ends October 20.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)