The Indian online retail space has been seeing brisk business over the past 45 days between the Hindu festivals of Janmashtami and Dussehra, with sales being driven by religious and spirituality-related purchases.
For example, FabFurnish which provides home decor and furniture items, exclusively for sale through its online store has stated that it has measured 4% rise in revenue since last month, which has been primarily thanks to the opening of the religion and spirituality category, which went online in September. “Last year we were caught unawares by the demand for products related to spirituality, which is why we took a conscious decision to establish a dedicated category this year. The results have been good, with average per person spend in the category having doubled to around Rs 1,800,” says Vikram Chopra, founder and CEO, fabfurnish.com. The top selling products include
The ideas of what spirituality and religion is, are quite broad in India, with spiritual “accessories” including such items as incense sticks, prasad, puja items, rudraksha, idols etc. Accordingly Chopra reports that the items being sold are quite diverse, with the top selling ones being idols and prayer accessories. Chopra also sees the trend of gifting items or shopping for the purpose of gifts ion the rise.
Lifestyle e-tailer Fashionandyou also says that it has experienced a jump of 50% in spiritual products sales, as part of the festive season. While OnlinePrasad, which has tie ups with 50 temples in India to deliver prasad to customers’ doorsteps expects revenue to rise by 300% between August and October-end. Goonjan Mall, founder of the website is in fact quite sure that this trend will only rise. “India is a country of festivals. There are at least two to three festivals per month,” he says. Similarly Chopra says that they see regular sales of Ganesha and Buddha statues throughout the year.
Besides with the Diwali festival fast approaching, the good times aren’t over yet for Indian e-tailers!