India's e-commerce industry reported nearly 56 percent growth in order volume this festive season amid the pandemic as compared to the same period last year, said a new report on Friday. The increase in order volume also led to the 50 percent growth in gross merchandise value (GMV) as compared to last year's festive season, said the report by e-commerce focused software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform Unicommerce.

The report said that not just marketplaces but brand websites also reported huge growth in consumer demand his the festive season. Big brands are now committed to selling through their own websites, Unicommerce said. The brand websites witnessed nearly 77 percent order volume growth as compared to 60 percent order volume growth of the marketplace, said the report.

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The research showed that the personal care category has emerged as the biggest gainer with nearly 176 percent order volume growth over last year's festive month. The electronics segment continues to be the highlight of festive season sales, with all marketplaces extensively promoting discounts and offers on electronic products.

The segment saw a substantial growth of 65 percent in order volume as compared to the festive month of 2019. Beauty and wellness is another category that has reported approximately 52 percent order volume growth as compared to the previous year's festive season.

The segment saw substantial growth of 65 percent in order volume. Pixabay

"This festive month we have seen e-commerce grow beyond expectations, and it's interesting to see the new emerging categories like personal care and beauty and wellness continuing their growth trajectory even during the festive season," Kapil Makhija, CEO Unicommerce, said in a statement.

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"With the rising consumer demand on brand websites, brands are now committed to going D2C (direct-to-consumer) and offering great deals to attract more consumers."

The report analyzed shopping trends for the festive month of 2019 and 2020. The time period for the analysis is 30 days prior to Diwali with a sample size of over 44 million orders. In this festive season, Tier-II and beyond cities of India contributed over 59 percent of the online consumer demand of India, while traditional metros and Tier-I cities contributed around 41 percent to the overall online retail. (IANS)