Press Release

Republic Day Had A Lukewarm Response With A 12.72% Increase In Orders

GoKwik, India’s leading eCommerce enabler, has reported that the Direct to Consumer (D2C) brands on its network witnessed a modest 12.72% increase in sales during the Republic Day sale week compared to the week prior. The GMV or Gross Merchandise Volume also saw a nominal rise of 10%.

The growth in the first quarter of FY 2024 has been muted after a great performance in the last quarter of 2023, despite Republic Day, which is usually a marquee sales event at the start of the year to give the necessary boost to brands.

“With shoppers going all out in the long festive season sale period in 2023, followed by the Black Friday sale that has increasingly grown popular amongst Indians, a modest surge in the Republic Day sale period could be a natural resting period in the first month of 2024. Moreover, with macro headwinds such as high-interest rates, layoffs, etc, shoppers might have been more conservative in their spending this time around. However, this seems to be a temporary trend and the consumption is likely to pick up with D2C’s favourite Valentine’s Day sale period coming up,” said Chirag Taneja, Co-Founder and CEO, GoKwik
Traditionally sale periods last year were dominated by the fashion category. However, this Republic Day sale witnessed a distinctive change, with the beauty & personal care (BPC) segment emerging as the top contributor, experiencing a significant 19.89% order surge. Fashion followed closely with a nearly 7% order uplift.

Tier 3 shoppers were the biggest contributors to the orders during this sale period with nearly half of all the orders. Tier 1 and 2 cities accounted for about 25% of orders, respectively. This trend was also observed across categories as most orders were clocked from Tier 3 cities continuing the trend from last year’s sale events. However, shoppers from smaller markets being more cost-sensitive than cities, have also availed almost two times more discounts from brands, especially in the BPC category, during the Republic Day sale period.
As observed on GoKwik’s network, D2C brand websites have emerged as the preferred shopping channel for Tier 3 & beyond cities over the last couple of years. Despite slower consumer demand in 2023 barring the positive buying sentiments during the festive season, several brands have witnessed significant growth through their D2C channel. In highly competitive categories such as BPC & Fashion which cater to the mass segment, investing in brand building will help in gaining consumer trust which in turn should help in sustainable growth in the longer term.

Continuing the trend, cash remained a preferred mode of payment in smaller towns, accounting for 3/4th of transactions during this period, while Tier 1 and 2 cities saw a higher inclination towards prepaid orders. Even though Tier 1 clocked most prepaid orders at 33%, the majority of India beyond Tier 1 cities still prefers Cash on Delivery (COD) as a payment mode.

Amongst states, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh continued to dominate the sale period orders, just like previous festive season sales, followed by Karnataka, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

A unique trend that was observed was that Gift cards and premium memberships emerged as top choices among consumers during this sale period, especially in BPC, underlining the increasing preference for flexible gifting options and exclusive memberships in the online shopping ecosystem.
GoKwik houses over 1200 eCommerce brands in its network including Lenskart, Neemans, Man Matters, Purplle, Shoppers Stop, etc, ranging from fashion, beauty, health and nutrition, electronics and other key categories of the online shopping space.