Sales on Amazon, Flipkart, and other marketplaces jumped 23–25% year-on-year in the first two days of festive e-commerce events, according to Redseer Strategy Consultants, marking one of the best years for online shopping. Sales are growing twice as fast as last year, led by demand for premium smartphones and TVs, which gained from sizeable GST benefits.
Macroeconomic tailwinds
“A mix of macro tailwinds — repo rate cuts, higher disposable income limits, rural affluence, and pent-up demand across appliances, fashion, and home categories, will supercharge consumption,” the report said.
This year, major e-commerce players synced their flagship sales with the new GST slabs, betting that customers will loosen their purse strings when they see the savings directly reflecting on price tags. Flipkart’s Big Billion Days and Amazon’s Great Indian Festival went live earlier this week, while Meesho had already kicked off its Mega Blockbuster Sale last weekend.
Amazon said its sale event attracted over 380 million customers during the first two days, the highest ever for the platform in India, with over 70% coming from beyond the top nine metro cities.
Premiumization drives demand
“From air conditioners and dishwashers, that are both seeing double-digit y-o-y growth, to inverter batteries, that are growing 2x, customers are enjoying the benefits of reduced GST,” the company said in a statement. Smartphones saw strong double-digit growth, with the segment above Rs 20,000 growing 50% y-o-y, driven by premiumisation. Among premium TVs, sales of QLED models were up 23% and those of Mini-LED TVs grew 27% y-o-y on Amazon’s platform.
The company added that laptop sales, too, surged on its platform on the first two days, with the MacBook Air M4 selling 94 times more than on regular days.
Flipkart, too, said smartphones are a festive favourite this year, with iPhone 16 already emerging as the highest-selling item during early access for its premium members on Flipkart Minutes, its quick commerce venture.
“Shoppers who had possibly been holding back purchases are now returning with confidence. Early trends already reflect a double-digit surge in demand,” said Pratik Shetty, vice president, growth and marketing, Flipkart.
Similar trends were seen by Meesho. On the opening weekend of its sales, 240 million customers visited the platform, which saw around 29,000 orders being placed every minute across categories.
Overall, Redseer expects this year’s festive sales on e-commerce platforms to be the best in the last five years, growing 20–25% y-o-y to generate over Rs 1.15 lakh crore in gross merchandise value, compared to an 11% growth rate last year.