New Delhi, Dec 4 (IANS): India's e-commerce industry reported nearly 56 per cent growth in order volume this festive season amid the pandemic as compared to the same period last year, said a new report on Friday.

The increase in order volume also led to the 50 per cent growth in gross merchandise value (GMV) as compared to the last year festive season, said the report by e-commerce focused software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform Unicommerce.

The report said that not just marketplaces but brand websites also reported huge growth in consumer demand his festive season.

Big brands are now committed towards selling through their own websites, Unicommerce said.

The brand websites witnessed nearly 77 per cent order volume growth as compared to 60 per cent order volume growth of the marketplace, said the report.

The research showed that personal care category has emerged as the biggest gainer with nearly 176 per cent order volume growth over last year's festive month.

The electronics segment continues to be the highlight of festive season sales, with all marketplaces extensively promoting discounts and offers on electronic products.

The segment saw a substantial growth of 65 per cent in order volume as compared to the festive month of 2019.

Beauty and wellness is another category that has reported approximately 52 per cent order volume growth as compared to previous year's festive season.

"This festive month we have seen e-commerce grow beyond expectations, and it's interesting to see the new emerging categories like personal care and beauty and wellness continuing their growth trajectory even during the festive season," Kapil Makhija, CEO Unicommerce, said in a statement.

"With the rising consumer demand on brand websites, brands are now committed towards going D2C (direct-to-consumer) and offering great deals to attract more consumers."

The report analysed shopping trends for the festive month of 2019 and 2020.

The time period for the analysis is 30 days prior to Diwali with a sample size of over 44 million orders.

In this festive season, Tier-II and beyond cities of India contributed over 59 per cent of the online consumer demand of India, while traditional metros and Tier-I cities contributed around 41 per cent to the overall online retail.