GOSF was extended to run for four days instead of the usual one day model followed in most
countries for a similar event. As a result, Google reported that its partners which were over 200
e-commerce websites saw the numbers of visitors go up substantially.
Nitin Bawankule, Director eCommerce, Google India said, “All leading partners saw an increase
of three to four times growth in daily sales during GOSF.” Apparels and electronics were the
categories that saw the biggest jump. Other popular categories included apparel, e-books and
books, home and kitchen equipment, jewellery, and healthcare and wellness products.
“We are overwhelmed with the tremendous response received during GOSF 2013. During the
three day period, we witnessed over 120 per cent jump in traffic and 3.5 times growth in
revenues. This is testament to the future potential of online shopping in India,” said Vikas
Ahuja, Chief Marketing Officer at Myntra, one of the largest lifestyle e-retailers in India.
Jabong, a website similar to Myntra, saw an overwhelming response to the festival. “Revenue
during the festival increased 5-6 times more than a usual day. The growth rate from both
metros and non-metros was phenomenal,” said Manu Jain, Co-Founder, Jabong.
It was not that sales of only the apparel or the gadgets, which are considered as low value
items, that grew, but also high value items like housing saw surge in their sales. Tata Housing
reported that online booking of over 55 flats in this festive season. Pawan Sarda, Marketing
Head, Tata Value Homes said, “We sold 55 apartments with a sales value of over INR 25 crore
across four projects during the four days of GOSF. Further, around 30 per cent of the booking
came from non-resident Indians and 40 per cent from tier II cities.” This shows the uptake of
the e-commerce wave in smaller cities, not only for low-value products but for an offbeat category like online purchases of property.
This initiative by Google primarily to promote online shopping in India helped the e-commerce
players report a huge surge in new registrations, and first time buyers. Many online companies
like indiatimes.com and myntra saw 80-100% growth in the rate of new registrations and transactions from first time shoppers in these four days. GOSF also served as a perfect launch-pad
for a lot new ecommerce entrants like PayTM to launch themselves.
Google has been quite vocal about its rationale behind this initiative to help e-commerce sites
acquire customers and promote online shopping. But this festival ultimately helped customers
and e-commerce players alike, invigorating the online shopping phenomenon which offers
Google a host of opportunities to target its tailor made products for web advertising. Can this
move by Google be touted as its big marketing initiative? Or will this move be just another sale
period date as the online companies can have sales anytime. No matter what the critics have to
say regarding this new wave, we feel that such online festivals are an open testament to the
fact that the next generation of retailing belongs largely to e-commerce.