How are Amazon, Flipkart, and electronics makers tantalizing buyers' palates for the holiday season?

E-commerce portals are setting their sights on the holiday season. Amazon and Flipkart offer discounts and cashback offers on a wide variety of products, from household items to bulky electronics.

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Amazon’s Great India Festival and Flipkart’s Big Billion Days sales are in line with Samsung and Xiaomi in the gadget segment. Samsung is pushing a “No Mo FOMO” sale on various electronic product deals, including smartphones. Xiaomi sells “Tech ka Shubh Muhurat”. Apple will also join these companies, launching its own promotions from Monday. Google has partnered with his Flipkart to offer discounts on Pixel phones as the next generation of his Pixel devices, including a watch and earbuds, is about to launch on October 6th.

Attraction of 5G

According to research firm Techarc, users are buying multiple devices, mostly smartphones. Smart TVs, TWS earbuds, and smartwatches are purchased as a result of lifestyle choices.

Prabhu Ram, Head of Industry Intelligence Group (IIG) at CyberMedia Research, said: (CMR).

IDC tech industry analyst Navkendar Singh said Samsung will be the main driver in Android’s premium segment. He pointed out that Xiaomi will emerge as a major player, followed by Realme, Vivo, Samsung and Oppo.

“There is no significant change in overall sales volume this year compared to last year as the ASP (Average Selling Price) has increased,” Singh added. He notes that sales of his IoT devices, such as earbuds and wearables, are at a higher level due to their short shelf life of about six to eight months.

CMR expects healthy potential sales in cost-effective smartphones (Rs.7,000 to Rs.24,999) and premium smartphones (> Rs.25,000) segments, especially 5G smartphones. Meanwhile, entry-level affordable smartphones will continue to bear the brunt of limited festive sales as consumers in this segment are affected by changing economic conditions.

The iPhone is still a dream purchase this Christmas season. With the launch of the iPhone 14 series, the focus shifted to the iPhone 13 as there are no noticeable differences between the two phones.

“Without opting for an Android phone, Apple will clearly continue to be a popular choice among premium buyers,” Singh said.

Macroeconomic background

Bulk and corporate buyers will be the biggest contributors this holiday season as the concept of gifting kicks off with the arrival of Diwali. Conversely, existing low-income feature phone users will find it difficult to upgrade and move into the smartphone ecosystem as their ASPs rise even as their income stagnates or declines.

Speaking with industry analysts, he asserted that while economic headwinds make things worse for entry-segment buyers, the premium segment has power of choice. Nonetheless, we are still optimistic about increasing sales in 2022. Amazon Business reports double the growth of businesses or bulk orders.

E-commerce portals have an advantage over individual players as they offer a much wider range of items to redeem cashback and promotional coupons/codes for other items. Schemes like BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) and POD (pay-on-delivery) are a kind of game changer in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 space.