The online sales of smartphone in India got a hype during the festive season sale on various e-commerce platforms and thus, it is all set to cross the 50 million mark in a year for the first time ever in 2018.
The year was driven by discounts, buy-back offers and easy financing options offered by retailers such as Flipkart and Amazon and others especially at the time of the festive season.
Research firm CMR estimated that online sales in the fourth quarter of 2018 will increase 60-65% year-on-year and on the other hand, sales in bricks-and-mortar stores are likely to fall 4-6%. Counterpoint Research has projected a 51% increase in online sales and 11% for offline.
“With the onset of festival season, more smartphone vendors in partnership with e-commerce players are offering discounts which when clubbed with other exciting offers result in an overall 50-60% discounting on final purchase – which cannot be matched by offline channel partners,” said Upasana Joshi, associate research manager-client devices, IDC.
In October-December, smartphone sales growth through the e-commerce channel is set to far outpace offline sales for the second quarter running. Online sales are also being driven by new value-added services, including extended warranties