Gurgaon, September 12, 2024: Delhivery Limited, India’s leading integrated logistics service provider, has released key insights from its latest analysis of 125 million+ shipments during the 2023 festive season. Drawing on Redseer’s industry data forecasting a 20% growth in e-commerce, Delhivery’s report, #Direct2Celebrations, highlights crucial trends to help direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands prepare for the upcoming peak demand months.

Order Volume growth
With 20% growth expected in e-commerce this festive season, Delhivery’s report says that while metro cities (like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai etc) experience the highest orders, the largest growth in orders will come from tier-II cities led by Gurgaon (36.8%), Raipur (32.8%), Nagpur (20.9%), Jaipur (20.60%) and others. Online shopping remains the preferred mode for 75% consumers and as much as 60% of online orders come from tier II cities and smaller towns. Among other key highlights, 81% of consumers use their smartphones or mobile devices to make purchases and recommendations from promotions/influencers are a deciding factor for 84% consumers.

Shopping trends
Categories like accessories & apparel, home makeovers, technology and electronics are shaping the latest shopping trends. Interestingly, electronics are gradually replacing dry fruits as the favoured gift during festivals whether for individuals or collective/corporate gifting. Mobile phones and power banks see the highest spike in electronics purchases at 44.5% and 43.6% respectively. Paint and pain tools see a 178.5% surge in growth followed by cleaners and disinfectants at 67.5%. Women’s accessories will see a 79.2% spike, as will the purchase of jewellery online at 32.1%.

Returns management
With high order volume growth, there is also a surge in the rate of returns making a smooth return management experience a key metric for the performance of an online retailer.
Nearly four out of ten cash on delivery (CoD) RTOs (return to origin) are from apparels & accessories (39.3%) followed by beauty products and personal care (14.5%). These categories comprise over half of total CoD RTOs and highlight the need for a targeted returns reduction strategy for brands in this space. An efficient logistics partner becomes the linchpin of e-commerce by addressing returns at every stage of the delivery process. From the use of AI for geolocation of bad addresses and an algorithm to forecast potential returns, leading logistics companies like Delhivery help minimize the occurrence of returns. In case of a return, streamlined processes for such requests are handled by the logistics partner whose customer-facing role becomes pivotal in the retail experience.

Additional insights
Marketing professionals are increasingly competing to make a headstart in festive planning. The report says that 20% of them plan more than 3 months in advance of the peak season. A crucial starting point is understanding the target audience for which Delhivery procured insights from MoEngage, Infobip and Lyxel & Flamingo for their combined expertise across customer engagement, omni-channel communication and digital marketing.
Using proprietary data as well as secondary sources, the report also includes tips for perfecting the customer experience and best practices in packaging and other recommendations that D2C brands can leverage for a successful festive season taken from September 2023 to November 2023.

About Delhivery
Delhivery is India's largest fully-integrated logistics services provider. With its nationwide network covering over 18,700 pin codes, the company provides a wide range of logistics services such as express parcel transportation, PTL freight, TL freight, cross-border, supply chain, and technology services. Since its inception, Delhivery has successfully fulfilled over 2.8 billion shipments and today works with over 33,000 customers, including large and small e-commerce participants, SMEs, and other enterprises and brands.
For more information about Delhivery, please visit: www.delhivery.com