Indian Shoppers Spent 20% More On Orders From Marketplaces In 2023: Report

Marketplaces continue to strengthen their position and increase sales globally. In 2023, the amount shoppers spent on orders from marketplaces grew by 7 per cent globally and by more than 20 per cent in India. 

Admitad partner network analysed more than 120 million orders from marketplaces worldwide and more than 6 million orders in India to understand the changes in the industry in 2023. The study includes statistics from more than 150 marketplaces, including both global giants like Alibaba and Amazon and Indian marketplaces like Flipkart, Myntra, Nykaa and Ajio.

The largest number of orders were made by residents of Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Patna, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Lucknow, Jaipur, Guwahati.

The industry continues to grow against the backdrop of the global recession

Despite the challenges of the global economy, the e-commerce industry continues to grow and along with it, its brightest representatives, marketplaces, are developing too. 

One of them is the rapid growth of mobile sales around the world - marketplaces are confidently working with mobile traffic and can take full advantage of the trend. The global share of mobile orders in all purchases from marketplaces increased from 22 per cent to 34 per cent. In India, the growth was also rapid - from 15 per cent to 24 per cent.

According to Neha Kulwal, Managing Director, APAC and India, Mitgo, “The sales growth was also significantly influenced by various marketing support measures that marketplaces offer to brands that sell their goods through them. For example, Amazon Marketing Services continued to grow strongly in 2023, and many local marketplaces in India also apply similar methods to help brands on the site to maximise sales, and thus the profit of the marketplace itself.”

Indian buyers became more interested in toys, goods for mothers and car parts

In 2023, the average order value of a purchase from a marketplace in the world was 23 USD, in India it was slightly less - 16 USD (grew by 6,4 per cent YoY).

Here's a list of the top product categories by their share in the total number of marketplace sales in 2023, in India:

Some categories showed the record-breaking pace of growth in number of orders in India:

Coupons and affiliate stores became more effective

Users continue to actively use cashback options when shopping on marketplaces - as in the previous year, in 2023 cashback services accounted for up to a third of all purchases attracted. Content marketplaces, affiliate stores, coupon services, contextual ads, social networks and mobile apps were the next most effective globally.

In 2023, there was a 17 per cent increase in sales through affiliate stores, which aggregate offers of goods and services from different brands' websites and trading platforms and create thematic product feeds. Marketplace sales through coupon services also grew by more than 10 per cent.

More and more marketplaces are also turning to affiliate marketing to accelerate sales growth. The number of partners willing to attract orders for a reward from advertisers is also growing. In 2023, their number in India increased by 12 per cent and the sum of their profits by 18 per cent.