188% growth in online sellers during Q3 and 214% rise in D2C sellers in 2020: Report

Where 2020 has been a vortex of crisis for most industries, sectors like e-commerce and logistics have ridden this perilous wave with a stride, even exhibiting remarkable progress. With this year approaching the finish line, Shiprocket, India’s leading tech-enabled D2C aggregator, has released its year-end report, which compiles various trends observed by the brand from January to December 2020 including the year-on-year growth of D2C merchants, shipment volumes, and more.

Among other noteworthy findings, Shiprocket identified a 214% increase in D2C sellers on its platform and a 107% upsurge in the volume of shipments vis-à-vis last year. With multiple drivers of growth in various segments, Shiprocket also noted a 188% surge in online sellers during Q3 of 2020, when compared to Q2 as a majority of people, began shifting from offline to online shopping, owing to the pandemic facilitating soaring usage of the Internet.

Besides this, the report also identified that the top 5 in-demand categories among sellers in 2020 were food, kitchen and dining, personal care, apparel like sportswear and shirts, electronic items such as mobile phones and covers, and healthcare products such as face masks.

Speaking on the trend in D2C e-commerce, Saahil Goel, CEO, and Co-Founder of Shiprocket said, “Although 2020 has been a challenging year overall, the Direct to Consumer e-commerce segment has seen a major boom in business with sellers and consumers opting for more digitized services. We’ve seen a notable development in several verticals including the number of sellers who came online and the number of customers shopping online. As we gear up to step into 2021, it will be interesting to see the D2C sector steering the e-commerce and logistics sectors.”

Furthermore, this year-end report revealed that the top 5 popular products included Herbo Build, Slice Card, and Onion Hair Oil for Regrowth and Hair fall control with Redensyl, Skin Illuminate Face Serum for Radiant Skin with Vitamin-C and Turmeric, and Ayurvedic Medicine. Based on the merchant mapping conducted by Shiprocket, with a sample size of over 85,000 sellers, 48% of shippers opted for Cash on Delivery and Express Delivery for their orders during the year.

True to its commitment of helping MSMEs across the country, the fulfillment platform noted that around 51% of the sellers on its platform were from tier-II and tier-III cities and nearly 49% from tier-I cities, striking an impressive balance between the metro and non-metro cities in the country.

Shiprocket’s report also observed that online stores such as Shopify, Magento, Woocommerce, etc., contributed to over 32% of the total traction while social media platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram contributed to almost 35%. Moreover, there was considerable traction from offline sellers, who contributed to over 19%, and marketplaces such as eBay, Amazon, Etsy, etc. that comprised over 12% of total traction.

When it comes to the top 3 states where the sellers were most active, Shiprocket recorded the following –

For the top 3 cities where sellers were most active, Shiprocket observed the following.

In addition to the impressive aforementioned statistics, Shiprocket added almost 68,000 new merchants in 2020, taking the total number to over 85,000.

Incepted in 2017, Shiprocket works with MSMEs in the e-commerce sector, providing seamless shipping experiences across 27,000+ pin codes panIndia and 220 countries globally, leveraging cutting-edge technology.