India's e-commerce industry witnessed an order volume growth of 31 per cent for the third quarter of this year that ended in September, as compared to the same period last year, said a report on Wednesday.

However, while the order volume has increased significantly, the corresponding gross merchandise value (GMV) has increased only by 24 per cent due to five per cent decline in the average order value, said the report by Unicommerce, a leading e-commerce focused SaaS (software-as-a-service) platform.

The results showed that personal care and health and pharma emerged as the fastest-growing segments, but the electronics and fashion continue to be the biggest category with the maximum share of order volume, although they have lower growth.

Interestingly, the results showed that in Q3, brand's own websites reported a growth of over 78 per cent as compared to 35 per cent from the marketplaces during the same duration.

"With the increasing focus of companies on investing in online channels and rising interest in adopting technology solutions to improve business operations, we firmly believe this growth momentum will continue for the next few quarters," Kapil Makhija, CEO, Unicommerce, said in a statement.

The huge growth of e-commerce is driven by consumers living in tier-2 and tier-3 cities of India.

The increasing focus on regional markets and the rising adoption of smartphones is driving growth from tier-2 and beyond cities.

The tier-3 and beyond cities have showcased a growth of over 90 per cent, said the report.

Another great news for the e-commerce ecosystem is the reducing return orders. There has been a significant dip of approximately 22 per cent in returns per forward order, which is probably indicative of a maturing e-commerce ecosystem, according to the findings..