Ecommerce companies cash in on the yoga craze

Unless you were living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, you know that 21st June was the first International Yoga Day. It marked the beginning of a worldwide annual event to celebrate the ancient Indian tradition – yog. This was result of our Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi’s strong pitch during his UN General Assembly speech, which garnered huge support by global leaders.

While in various pockets of the world, people twisted, exhaled and performed yoga asanas, Indian ecommerce companies were busy drawing out plans to make the most of this buzz around Yoga.

Yoga Deals by Etailers

Amazon opened a dedicated yoga e-store on 20th June and offered attractive deals & discounts to its customers on 20-21st June 2015. Some of the products showcased on this special store are yoga mats, music, DVDs, books, men & women apparel and complete yoga sets. As a result, the marketplace witnessed 400% rise in yoga merchandise purchases and Delhi/NCR contributed the highest.

On the other hand, Snapdeal launched deals on yoga products from 17th June itself to capture early shoppers who were looking to stock their gear. Ola cabs partnered with health studios in New Delhi for a lucky draw campaign and gave free rides and yoga sessions to the winners. Not just ecommerce companies, but luxury hotels, health & fitness stores and wellness studios floated deals and free goods in the wake of Yoga fever.

This is not the first time that etaliers have come up with ways to milk a trending event. During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, political merchandise like cups, tshirts, caps, clocks with political parties’ logo were sold online. Snapdeal even came up with ‘NaMo’ brand of phones! During the cricket fever (World Cup followed by IPL), sports apparel and accessories got a push too. Same was the case when hashtag #ThankYouSachin continued to trend for days when renowned Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar retired. This presented a great opportunity to online marketplaces to sell Sachin Memorabilias and earn profits.