Flipkart registers 54 pc rise in number of transacting sellers during Independence Day sale

Walmart-owned Flipkart said the number of transacting sellers on its platform rose by 54 percent during the recently concluded sale as compared to last year.
Flipkart held an ‘Independence Day Sale’ from August 6-10, where sellers on the platform witnessed significant business growth. About 8,000 newly onboarded sellers participated in their first sale event and over 450 of them became ‘lakhpatis’ over these five days, Flipkart said in a statement.
Transacting sellers were those who registered at least one transaction during the sale period.
“During this period, the Flipkart marketplace platform recorded a 54 percent increase in transacting sellers compared to last year. The Independence Day Sale event saw participation from sellers primarily from tier II cities and beyond; that have now become local businesses with strong growth pipelines,” a statement said.
E-commerce companies have seen a significant growth in business in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic as customers logged onto digital platforms to shop for various items. Flipkart said since the lockdown, it saw an increased interest from sellers to join the platform.
“Since then, the company has onboarded almost 8,000 sellers to its online marketplace, with more than 70 percent of them coming from smaller towns. Flipkart is supplementing its onboarding efforts with free business incubation support for new sellers for the first 60 days,” it said.
This includes equipping sellers with insights in matters of product support, advertising, and speed support, it added.
Flipkart saw maximum participation of sellers from New Delhi, followed by Surat, Jaipur, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Ghaziabad, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Agra.
Subsequently, cities such as Dharuhera, Datia, Harapanahalli, Cachar, Motihari, Purnia, Tezpur, Sibsagar, Dholpur and Etawah became the new cities that saw the highest number of seller participation, it added.
Key categories that led the seller growth included grooming, household items, books and media, food and nutrition, toys, makeup and fragrances, women ethnic contemporary wear, personal healthcare, home furnishing and mobile protection, the statement said.
Flipkart rival, Amazon India also held its Prime Day sale on August 6-7. Amazon India had said artisans and weavers from its Karigar programme, women entrepreneurs from Saheli, and startup brands from Launchpad saw growth of 6.7X, 2.6X and 2.1X, respectively.
Also, over 1,000 Local Shops made their Prime Day debut from over 100 cities, and more than 91,000 SMB (small and medium business) sellers had participated in the sale.