Indians living in small towns are spending more online than their urban counterparts due to the long-awaited improvement in rural demand.
Spending patterns in the festive season show that semi-urban and rural consumption demand has improved, with smaller cities seeing a significant increase in spending.
Amazon India’s Diwali Insights report said 70% of the platform’s Prime members who shopped during the festive season were from Tier II and III cities, up from 60% a year ago.
Similar trends were also recorded on smaller platforms. For e-commerce platform Meesho, which has around 80% of its users coming from tier 1 cities and beyond, its recent festival sale generated a 45% increase in new e-commerce users.
According to Kushal Bhatnagar, Associate Partner at RedSeer Strategy Consultants, Tier 2 and above cities led in terms of gross merchandise value growth during the festival season, with stable spending patterns and high interest in the options available online .
