Google's Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF), the annual online shopping event of the Internet search giant, attracted 2 million visitors in 2013 as people from across the globe used the e-commerce sites to check out deals on electronics, shoes, watches and travel.

In 2012, when this festival was launched, the number of visitors was around 1 million.

Google said its partners, including e-commerce websites like Snapdeal, Myntra and eBay, said that their daily sales jumped 3 to 4 times during the GOSF. "Even offbeat categories like cars and housing saw great traction during the festival with Tata Housing closing booking of over 55 flats," Google India Director eCommerce (local and media) Nitin Bawankule said.

He added that almost half visitors were women. Reuters Google said that the peak time of traffic each day was 2pm-8pm with 62 percent viewers coming from the 18-34 years category.

"Currently, we estimate that over 30 per cent buyers were first time shoppers on most sites. Given the scale of the initiative with all the partners and the large number of online shoppers in India, GOSF this year was a huge success by all parameters," he said.

Other popular categories included apparel, e-books, books, home and kitchen equipments, jewellery, and healthcare and wellness. "We witnessed over 120 percent jump in traffic and 3.5x growth in revenues, which is testament to the future potential of online shopping in India," Myntra Chief Marketing Officer Vikas Ahuja said.

Tata Housing said that more than 50 apartments worth over Rs 25 crore were sold during December 11-14, adding that around 30 per cent of the booking came from NRIs and 40 per cent was from tier II cities. "Initiatives like GOSF act as a catalyst to further boost adoption of online shopping in India. In fact, a lot of these new shoppers become repeat buyers and add up to the traffic on the website," Snapdeal.com Vice President (Marketing) Sandeep Komaravelly said.