Emerging Metros Lead Valentine's Week Spending Surge

In the run-up to the ongoing Valentine’s Week, emerging metros such as Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Pune have become the new Valentine's capital, piping the original metros Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru, by posting over 100% growth in transactions online over last year, according to Simpl Checkout Scan. This comes on the back of similar growth of 100% growth recorded in pan-India transactions via Simpl’s 1-Tap Checkout from February 1-11th with categories including food and beverages, quick commerce, travel, beauty, personal care and electronics being the most preferred.

Valentine's Week

Here, emerging metros such as Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Pune witnessed 135%, 118% and 115% growth in transactions respectively while top metros such as Bangalore and New Delhi posted 75% and 38% growth and Mumbai posted a marginal increase in demand. Among the most preferred large merchants were Zomato, Swiggy, Blinkit, MakeMyTrip, Myntra, BookMyShow, Meesho, Nykaa, and Tata1mg while merchants including Boult Audio, ProtouchSkin and Frido were the preferred destinations for consumers in Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) segment. Consumers were also contributing to social causes this Valentine’s Week by planting saplings through initiatives such as Grow Billion Trees.

The demand during the said period was mainly led by 18-20-year-olds, though there was a notable increase in transactions made by consumers in the 41-50 age bracket across metros. While Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Pune witnessed 183%, 170% and 220% growth in transactions respectability in the 41-50 age bracket, top metros such as New Delhi and Bengaluru posted 65% and 90%, indicating a significant shift in consumer behaviour.

Furthermore, there has been a 15% increase in average order value from Rs 467 to Rs 575 as compared to last year with one consumer spending Rs 30,000 via Simpl’s 1-Tap Checkout on a single day. Interestingly a majority of the orders were placed between 8-9 pm across cities with female customers registering a 31% growth in transactions.

Commenting on this trend, Nitya Sharma, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Simpl said, “As an increasing number of consumers across age brackets are celebrating Valentine's Week across the country, they are going online to meet their varied needs, conveniently. We have seen millions of consumers from emerging metros such as Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Pune spend more during the first two weeks of February than their established metros counterparts in terms of demand, in a significant shift in consumer behaviour. Notably, greater spends by consumers in the higher age bracket also stood out this year across the top metros, reflecting how Valentine’s Week is becoming a festival of all age groups. As merchant’s preferred checkout partner, millions of consumers across the country are adopting Simpl’s 1-Tap Checkout to conveniently place orders for their loved ones”.  

With over 26,000 merchants across numerous categories and millions of customers across the country choosing Simpl’s Checkout solutions, the company is providing them with a seamless checkout experience with near-zero transaction failures.