Online retail giant amazon.in has reported growth in double digits across West Bengal and Kolkata with the city becoming the top 10 high-performing regions in the Consumer Electronics and Personal Computing category during the Amazon Great Indian Festival 2023. Fueled by financial schemes such as no cost EMI, customers in Kolkata continue to opt for premium products and upgrade to the latest appliances during the festive season. The growth for the Consumer Electronics and Personal Computing category is driven by the encouraging demand from Tier 2 and 3 regions across the state of West Bengal.
Customers in Kolkata also got a glimpse of Amazon Great Indian Festival 2023 at The Oberoi Grand, Kolkata with the ‘Amazon Xperience Arena’ (AXA) culminating on 7th November,2023. This one-of-a-kind showcase gave media, influencers, and customers a chance to experience their favorite brands and products while participating in fun engagements. Across the seven interactive zones at the event, customers competed to win exciting rewards and a chance to interact with their top brands across categories.
Commenting on the occasion, Nishant Sardana, Director, Consumer Electronics, Personal Computing and Large Appliances, Amazon India said, “We’re thrilled to conclude the Amazon Xperience Arena in Kolkata, which is amongst the top 10 performing cities for the Consumer Electronics and Personal Computing category, driven by upgrades and preference for premium products. During the Amazon Great Indian Festival 2023, we have also experienced a remarkable surge of more than 80% year-on-year growth in the appliances category across the region. As Kolkata’s festive season shopping continues to thrive on India’s most preferred marketplace, we are excited to share continued growth in this region”.
Here are some trends across Consumer Electronics and Personal computing along with the Large Appliances category observed on Amazon.in across Kolkata:
Consumer Electronics and Personal Computing
1. High-Growth Categories- Tablets, Laptops, Soundbars & Speakers: Tablets, laptops, soundbars, and speakers are the prominent categories exhibiting significant year-over-year (YoY) growth with an increase of almost 50%.
2. Shift towards premiumization: The premium category, featuring products priced above 50,000, witnessed 2x growth compared to last year
3. Better storage is preferred by customers: To ensure a lag-free experience, the gaming community in the region is opting for more storage capacity and high-performance computing devices. This trend has resulted in close to 70% year-on-year growth for 16GB RAM and 1 TB storage, and a remarkable 90% year-on-year growth for high-end processors ((i5/7/9, Apple M1, AMD Ryzen 5). The presence of multiple affordability options has also stimulated demand for high-performance devices
4. Smartwatches purchase is on the rise: This product category has experienced positive year-on-year growth of almost 80%, with customers preferring AMOLED displays
5. Most sold products during Amazon Great Indian Festival 2023: Smartwatches- Fire-Boltt Ninja Call Pro Plus, beatXP Marv Neo, Noise Pulse 2 Max; Headphones- boAT Bassheads, boAT Airdopes 141; Laptops: Apple Macbook Air, Acer Aspire lite, HP laptop 15S and Tablets: Samsung Galaxy S6 Lite, Xiaomi Pad 6, iPad Air 22 are most preferred amongst customers.
6. Brand preference:
○ Top PC gaming brands are HP, Acer, Dell and HyperX
○ Top 10 brands are Apple, boAt, HP, ASUS, Acer, Samsung, Lenovo, Fireboltt, Dell & Sony
○ Brands with highest YoY growth are Govo, One plus, Redmi, Tribit, Gigabyte, Amazon Basics, CP plus, Apple, Marshall & MSI
Large Appliances:
1. Affordable levers are driving growth in Kolkata: Kolkata has experienced an impressive 80%+ year-on-year growth in the home appliances category, with the surge predominantly fueled by premium products during the Amazon Great Indian Festival 2023. Notably, 70% of consumers in these regions have availed affordability options (no cost EMI and more) to make their appliance purchases
2. Preferred categories: Among subcategories, the most significant growth was observed for Air-Conditioners, with a year-on-year growth of more than almost 2x, closely followed by Refrigerators
3. Brands Preferred: Consumers in Kolkata preferred Samsung, LG, Daikin, and many more while upgrading their home during Amazon Great Indian Festival 2023
West Bengal is a key region and has played a vital role in Amazon’s growth in India. Over the years, Amazon has invested in creating a robust physical infrastructure across India. Today, Amazon has more than 55,000 sellers from West Bengal selling everything from apparel, sports goods, hosiery items, consumables, and a lot more on Amazon.in. There are several programs and tools that have been rolled out in the state to help hundreds and thousands of small sellers embrace e-commerce. (Local Shops, Karigar, Saheli, Launchpad etc.) To serve the needs of customers and sellers from the region, Amazon India has 3 large fulfilment centres in Kolkata with a total storage space of more than 3 million cubic feet. The region also has 3 sort centers with more than 1 million sq.ft. of processing area. These fulfilment and sort centers help serve sellers and customers in addition to helping in creating thousands of employment opportunities for local residents. Amazon also has close to 90 Amazon-owned and Partner Delivery Stations, as well as more than 1300 ‘I Have Space’ stores in the state. Furthermore, Amazon India has created more than 100,000 seasonal job opportunities across its operations network for the Indian festive season. These opportunities include direct and indirect jobs across India in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Chennai.