Republic Day sale trends by Unicommerce: Smaller towns driving e-commerce growth

Dais World | 27/01/2025 07:37 PM

• Tier-2 & 3 shoppers glamming up: 100% + order volume growth for makeup products
• Home decor & furniture items also see 100% order volume growth across tier-3 cities & smaller towns
• Nutraceuticals & supplements saw high demand, including anti-hair fall kits, skin toners, metabolism boosters etc.
• Other popular purchases include self-care items such as body lotions & moisturisers, lip balms, and makeup combos.

During the year’s first online sale event, the Republic Day sale, Unicommerce witnessed over 16 mn transactions processed by marketplaces and D2C brands through its platform over the 14-day event, which started on the 13th of January 2025.

The top performing categories during the sale period were health & pharma with over 80% YoY order volume growth, followed by home decor with 35% growth and beauty, wellness & personal care recording a 16% growth in volumes as compared to the sale period last year. This surge reflects the enthusiasm of  consumers at the very start of the year.

Driven by compelling deals and marketing campaigns, marketplaces observed a notable 16% year-on-year (YoY) growth in order items during the period. In contrast, D2C brand websites saw a modest YoY growth of over 5% during the same period.

A large share of the demand was from towns like Lucknow, Jaipur, Patna, Coimbatore, Surat, Kolar, Alwar, Rohtak, Kamrup and Gandhinagar.

Products that attracted higher demand and recorded significant growth included makeup products, home decor & furniture items and travel accessories. While tier-1 and metropolitan cities led growth across toys & baby products and gaming accessories, tier-2 and tier-3 towns saw higher demand for perfumes & deodorants, and health devices.

The share of prepaid orders in e-commerce continues to rise across tier-2, tier-3 cities and beyond regions. During this year’s sale period, the market share of prepaid orders in the fashion and accessories category grew from 23.9% to 25.1%. Similarly, the health & pharma category witnessed higher prepaid orders with their share rising from 8.4% in 2024 to 14% in 2025. The volume of prepaid orders across beauty, wellness and personal care also grew from 20.7% to 21.4% in 2025.

With the rise of regional warehousing across smaller suburban towns and the growing adoption of technology in these regions, the e-commerce industry is unlocking connectivity, reaching previously untapped areas. This, in turn, supports brands and e-commerce platforms to fulfil consumer demand across the hinterland of Bharat.

As of Q2 2025, Unicommerce serves 3600+ clients including D2C brands, retail and e-commerce companies as well as logistics provider firms. With 260+ technology & partner integrations, the company has achieved an annual transaction run rate of 850+ million order items managing 8800+ warehouses and 3150+ omni-enabled stores across geographies. Shipway by Unicommerce, the company’s logistics automation arm, enables automated shipping for faster fulfillment, serving more than 12,000+ online brands.

About Unicommerce

Unicommerce is one of India’s leading e-commerce enablement Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) platforms that enables end-to-end management of e-commerce and retail operations for brands, sellers, and logistics service provider firms. Shipway by Unicommerce provides an automated shipping solution that enables optimal courier allocation. It also offers a marketing automation tool, ConvertWay that allows brands to target customers using AI-enabled features.

Reach out to us at PR Desk 

Read more on our ​Partner sites: Growth Reports Business | The Progress Catalyst

Get rewarded for your reading habits on the Dais World app!