kolkata ecommerce contribution to total sales of smartphones and televisions has touched a new high this festive season for smartphones online sales have touched record 5560 of total category sales last month overtaking the halfway mark for the first time while online sales of televisions was 4045 estimates by multiple leading brands saidthis compares with a norm of 40 for smartphones and 30 for televisions they said in 2018 festive season ecommerce contribution was around 50 for smartphones and around 25 for televisions as per market trackersconsumers preferred online shopping due to high discount wide reach in smaller markets where offline distribution is still weak faster deliveries and plethora of nocost finance offers online shopping is becoming a habit in large cities advt smartphone maker realme india ceo madhav sheth said ecommerce contribution to the overall smartphone sales have increased due to variety of choices and ecommerce platforms extending their delivery services to tier 3 and 4 markets for smartphones online has become a dominating sales channel this festive season and could account for almost 60 of total sales said oneplus india general manager vikas agarwal the festive month is the most crucial period for the industry and contributes almost 30 of annual sales he saidin television onlinefocussed xiaomi said it sold over six lakh units of smart televisions last month while the overall indian market sells about four lakh units per monththree industry executives said leading television makers dropped prices of their televisions in ecommerce much more than in offline while online focussed brands like thomson kodak panasonicowned sanyo bpl and vu created new pricing lowspanasonic india ceo manish sharma said ecommerce focussed products and attractive price proposition drove online sales of televisions its just not the onlinefocussed but even the large omnichannel brands are now focussing on growing television ecommerce business the trend is becoming similar to smartphones he saidsales of televisions up to 43inches screen size which account for almost 65 of the overall market by units sold shifted to ecommerce pushing up the online contribution in contrast television sales in brickandmortar stores remained stagnant this festive season despite good demand for large screens due to a decline in the units sold in the sub43 inches segment industry executives said advt offline retail lobbies including confederation of all india traders cait and all india mobile retailers association had strongly criticised ecommerce marketplaces and brands for being allegedly handinglove and offering deep discounts this they said shifted the consumption to online from offline during the festive season accounting for a steep 3040 fall in sales at brickandmortar storeslobby group cait even said the reduction in goods and services tax collection in october was not due to the economic slowdown but a result of major chunk of offline sales shifting to ecommerce during festive season where products were sold at deep discounting leading to lower tax payouts et bureau published on nov 5 2019 at 0800 am ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to