BHARAT ONLINE

SMALL CITIES AND TOWNS ARE DRIVING ONLINE SALES DURING THE FESTIVE SEASON AS TOP E-COMMERCE PLAYERS STEADILY MAKE INROADS INTO TIER III TOWNS AND BEYOND

- DILASHA SETH

SUPPLY CREATES ITS own demand. This law of markets by French economist Jean-Baptiste Say might partly sum up e-commerce festive sales this season. With top e-commerce companies such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Snapdeal steadily making inroads into Tier III regions and beyond, small cities and towns including Alwar (Rajasthan), Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Silchar (Assam), Patna (Bihar) and Tinsukia (Assam), drove online sales during the festive month (October) this year.

While the online shopper base expanded by 20 per cent this year, estimates suggest that Tier II and beyond cities accounted for more than 60 per cent of online orders. Doubling of orders from smaller cities vis-à-vis last year also signals a broad-based economic recovery post the pandemic, with a significant increase in income and employment levels reported by rural India in September. Data by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) shows that the increase in employment ahead of the festive season was disproportionately higher in rural India, with 6.5 million of the 8.5 million jobs added in September coming from rural regions.

An improved vaccination rate, buoyant rabi harvest, good Kharif prospects, government transfers, and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) have provided the impetus to rural demand, according to the October monthly bulletin of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Reverse migration from larger cities due to Covid-19 is also attributed to the behavioral shift, which saw smaller towns experimenting with online shopping. While the pandemic led to faster adoption of digital channels by both buyers and sellers, factors like steep discounts and additional deals through banks and credit cards attracted buyers.