B2B ecommerce major Udaan on Sunday said it added about one lakh new businesses last year on the platform under its lifestyle segment through which over 230 million products were shipped.
The Lightspeed-backed company has also seen over 250 sellers under the category achieve sales worth Rs 1 crore in 2020.
“We are glad that despite the global pandemic and its adverse impact, Udaan kept the wheels of small businesses across Bharat moving by leveraging the power and scale of ecommerce,” Udaan Head (Lifestyle Business) Kumar Saurabh told PTI.
Udaan Co-founder Sujeet Kumar
He added that the volume growth achieved in the lifestyle business was primarily driven by a vast range of quality products available at affordable prices to business partners, who, in turn, cater to smaller parts of the country.
With the addition of one lakh new businesses last year, Udaan now has about two lakh businesses under the lifestyle category. The segment contributes about 10-12 percent of Udaan’s overall gross merchandise value (GMV).
While the company did not disclose its GMV numbers, a report by Bernstein states that Udaan’s GMV was at about $2.1 billion ARR (annual recurring revenue) in December 2020.
GMV is a term used in online retailing to indicate the gross merchandise value of the products sold through the marketplace over a certain period of time.
Udaan’s Lifestyle business — comprising clothing, accessories, and footwear — shipped over 230 million products, catering to more than 26 lakh orders in 2020.
Sharing trends from the year, Udaan said the lifestyle segment saw sales of 10 million comfort wear products and slippers across 900 cities during the year.
With work-from-home (WFM) becoming the norm due to the pandemic, it helped boost the sale of daily wearables. About nine million t-shirts, four million shirts, and three million kurtis were sold.
Over 3.5 million socks and blouses were sold on the platform during 2020, while 25 million protective masks were sold on Udaan in the first eight months of the pandemic, it added.
“Massive digital adoption among retailers and manufacturers during the pandemic also resulted in the demand going up as the unlock happened. This clearly highlights the huge potential in the lifestyle business,” Saurabh said.
He added that Udaan is uniquely positioned to leverage this opportunity by offering the benefits of ecommerce and internet-scale to its business partners, in line with its vision of transforming the trade ecosystem in the country by leveraging technology.
Key states such as Bihar and Assam witnessed large transaction volumes in the lifestyle category as well as cities such as Lucknow, Visakhapatnam, Bengaluru, and Kolkata.
While there has been a strong adoption of the platform by small and medium businesses, even large manufacturers and brands such as Jockey, Arvind, Shoppers Stop, BIBA, Rangriti, Lifestyle, Adidas, Reebok, Puma, Hummel, Relaxo, and Aqualite have also partnered with Udaan.
Udaan — which has 30 lakh businesses on its platform — has operations across categories including lifestyle, electronics, home and kitchen, staples, fruits and vegetables, FMCG, pharma, toys, and general merchandise.
Of this, 17 lakh are small retailers, including kirana shops, chemist shops, small hotels, and restaurants and others.
