Flipkart, Amazon likely to sell 1.5 crore smartphones in festive sales this year

E-commerce firm Flipkart and Amazon are likely to sell about 1.5 crore smartphones in the country during the festive sales, which will account for over 36 per cent of total expected sales for October-December, market research firm Techarc said on Wednesday.

Overall, 12.8 crore smartphones are estimated to be sold in India in 2020, it said.

The firm estimates that around 4.1 crore smartphones will be sold in the last quarter of 2020.

"The total estimated sales of smartphones for the year are revised at 128 million units, against the earlier estimates of 127 million released in June. Flipkart and Amazon estimated to sell 15 million smartphones during the festive sales period, which is 36.58 per cent of the total estimated sales for the October-December quarter," the report said.

Both e-commerce companies are running their first festive season sale.

"Samsung and Realme among likely top gainers. Micromax could also show some upward movement with its comeback. Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo expected to show stable outlook. Nokia, Lenovo (including Motorola), Poco among others set to sell less. OnePlus and Apple also likely to gain," the report said.

Flipkart has recorded two times growth in customers visiting the mobiles category during the same and premium segment of smartphones saw a growth of 3.2 times which was predominantly driven by Apple, Google and Samsung phones.

According to Flipkart, Realme has seen two times of growth in sales on a year-on-year basis.

TechArc report said that due to the impact of Covid-19 on business, mobile phone retailers have also started using hybrid models to sell their products.

"Covid-19 has taught us all-new ways of doing business. The pure-play offline channel has gone hybrid and is using online to aggregate demand complemented by same-day home deliveries even in non-metro cities and towns," Techarc founder and chief analyst Faisal Kawoosa said.

These mom and pop multi-brand stores are leveraging apps like WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook to sell smartphones while users may remain reluctant to visit markets for purchase, he added.

The new hybrid channel sales are expected to account for 6 per cent of total smartphone sales this year in India, the report said.

"Brands like Xiaomi, Vivo and Samsung have already announced their own models of hybrid channel sales. However, the growth in hybrid models comes from offline retailers using online for demand aggregation with limited geographic catchment. The premium segment, Rs 25,000-50,000 to remain in the spotlight," the report said.

Pure play online and offline channel contributions to be at 49 and 45 per cent, respectively.

Kawoosa said smartphones have been overused since the start of Covid-19. "Average usage of smartphones has doubled. This is pushing a considerable user base to go for early replacements and upgrades," he said.

According to the report, the recent package announced by the government encouraging its employees to spend on non-essential items is also going to benefit the smartphone as a product category.