Ditching marketplaces? E-shoppers, sellers transact more on brands’ own websites than e-retailers

Even as e-commerce marketplaces are fired up for round the corner festive season, it is direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands that are perhaps resonating more among customers and sellers through their own websites. Seen as a post-pandemic trend in the Indian e-commerce market, brands’ own websites have reported more than 78 per cent business growth in comparison to just 35 per cent growth they witnessed via marketplaces during the third quarter of the calendar year 2020, according to an e-commerce-trends analysis by Saas platform for the e-commerce supply chain – Unicommerce. 2020 festive season has assumed great significance for large e-commerce marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal others as much as it has for other vertical platforms such as Nykaa, Pepperfry, Firstcry, Lenskart and more across various categories in the post-Covid period.