MAM
Festival season will be the golden quarter for ecommerce players: Criteo Report
New Delhi: Criteo has released its Holiday Report 2020 highlighting key trends in the online e-commerce industry in the much-awaited festive season including Rakshabandhan, Big Billion days and Diwali. The report highlights the top trends observed for the highly thriving e-commerce market in India. Criteo regards this as the ‘Golden Quarter’ of 2020 as e-commerce clocks significantly high growth.
Overcoming such unprecedented times, online retail is back to pre-Covid2019 numbers, and steadily growing upwards since then. As 2020 sales are increasing progressively; 2019 data provides relevant context and describes the strong seasonality expected in the coming weeks. According to the report, there has been a 28 per cent year-on-year increase in the overall online retail sales.
Criteo MD southeast Asia and India Taranjeet Singh said, “During these trying times, the Indian e-commerce industry has been on a steady upward growth trajectory showcasing a gradual shift of consumers towards e-commerce websites for purchases. Consumers have moved onto a stage where purchasing online has become their daily routine in order to fulfil all their demands for food, beverages and festive gifting. Expanding businesses on e-commerce platforms is the need of the hour. This golden quarter signals a revival in demand and consumer sentiment at large on ecommerce platforms.”
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With the festive season around the corner, the daily sales of flowers, gifts, food and beverages increase manifold. Individually flowers and gifting categories witness a boost in their numbers by more than 343 per cent in August 2019, compared to its average in July.
Additionally, statistics according to Criteo Holiday report reveal 70 per cent increase in sales in the food & beverage category observed during the festival of Raksha Bandhan.
During the time of Big Billion Days on Flipkart, overall, retail sales were up 39 per cent showcasing an average of 27 per cent for the entire week compared to average in August 2019. As traffic generates more sales the conversion rates remain above usual as sales increase more than traffic during the four weeks leading to Big Billion Days. The report quotes that for every 1,000 visitors to Indian retailers, there are significantly more transactions than usual. The week of Big Billion Days represents e-commerce traffic increased by 19 per cent, followed by a sharp rise in sales (+27 per cent).
As people spend most of their time at home, especially during the most anticipated festival like Diwali; the share of transactions completed on app increased consistently before and following the festival in 2019, with an acceleration of In-App sales just before the event.
For all retail combined, during the weeks following Diwali, sales remain 6-8 per cent above average in August with a 32 per cent increase in sales in the food & beverage category. This festival of Diwali also marks the onset of the travel season with an uplift of bookings to 16 per cent in the week following Diwali.
Brands
YES Bank hands the keys to SBI veteran Vinay Tonse as it bets on a new era
Former SBI managing director appointed as YES Bank’s new MD and CEO
MUMBAI: YES Bank is done rebuilding. Now it wants to grow. The private sector lender has appointed Vinay Muralidhar Tonse as managing director and chief executive officer-designate, with RBI approval secured and a start date of April 6, 2026 confirmed. The three-year term signals the bank’s intent to shift gears from crisis recovery to full-throttle expansion.
Tonse, 60, is no stranger to scale. Most recently managing director at State Bank of India, he oversaw a retail book of roughly $800bn in deposits and advances, one of the largest in the country. Before that, he ran SBI Mutual Fund from August 2020 to December 2022, a stint that saw assets under management surge from Rs 4.32 lakh crore to Rs 7.32 lakh crore across market cycles. Add stints in Singapore and four years leading SBI’s overseas operations in Osaka, and the incoming chief arrives with a genuinely global CV.
His academic grounding is equally solid: a commerce degree from St Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bengaluru, and a master’s in commerce from Bangalore University.
The appointment follows an extensive search and evaluation process by the bank’s Nomination and Remuneration Committee. NRC chairperson Nandita Gurjar said the committee unanimously backed Tonse, citing his leadership track record, governance credentials and ability to drive the bank’s next phase of transformation.
Non-executive chairman Rama Subramaniam Gandhi was unequivocal. “I am certain that Vinay Tonse, with his vast experience as a senior banker, will propel YES Bank to its next phase of growth,” Gandhi said, adding that the bank remains focused on strengthening its retail and corporate banking franchises and expanding its branch network.
Rajeev Kannan, non-executive director and senior executive at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, the bank’s largest shareholder, said Tonse’s experience across retail, corporate banking, global markets and asset management positioned him well to lead the lender. SMBC said it looks forward to working with Tonse and the board as YES Bank pursues its ambition of becoming a top-tier private sector lender anchored in strong governance and sustainable growth.
Tonse succeeds Prashant Kumar, who took the helm in March 2020 when YES Bank was in freefall following a severe financial crisis, and spent six years painstakingly stabilising the institution, rebuilding governance and restoring operational scale. Gandhi was generous: “The bank remains indebted to Prashant Kumar, who is responsible for much of what a strong financial powerhouse YES Bank is today.”
Tonse, for his part, struck a purposeful note. “Together with the board and my colleagues, I remain deeply committed to creating long-term value for all our stakeholders,” he said, pledging to build on Kumar’s foundation guided by his personal motto: Make A Difference.
Beyond the balance sheet, Tonse played cricket at college and club level and represented Karnataka in archery at the national championships — sports he credits with teaching him teamwork, situational leadership, discipline and focus. In quieter moments, he reaches for retro Kannada music, classic Hindi songs, and the crooning of Engelbert Humperdinck, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar.
YES Bank has its steady-handed rebuilder in Kumar to thank for survival. Now it has a scale-obsessed growth banker at the wheel. The next chapter starts April 6.
