Published on: November 9, 2026
India’s 2026 festive season sales witnessed unprecedented growth, with shopping activity becoming faster, larger and more widely distributed across platforms. While Amazon’s Great Indian Festival and Flipkart’s Big Billion Days continued to drive festive demand, consumer spending, advertising investments and product categories increasingly shifted towards marketplaces, quick-commerce platforms and emerging players. Based on HiveMinds’ experience working with brands across electronics and everyday essentials, shoppers emerged as more informed, value-conscious and less willing to wait for their preferred purchases.
Discounts brought shoppers in, but value decided what they bought. Order values rose and premium products grew fastest.
The shift reached high-value categories too. On Flipkart, a two-wheeler brand we work with saw returns on ad spend climb to nearly 48x through the festive period, against about 6x in a normal month and about 22x in last year’s festive season. Daily orders were roughly 3.6x last year’s festive pace, and conversion was nearly 8x its normal-month level, on orders averaging well over ₹80,000. Consumers are now comfortable buying a scooter online, not just a phone or a pair of earbuds. At the other end of the basket, shoppers stocked up: in home care, multi-packs grew from about a quarter to over 40% of sales.
When the sale opened, those prepared shoppers moved fast. In electronics, purchases grew far faster than clicks, and the first four days carried around 60% of the whole sale.
Amazon opened day one to all shoppers and had its biggest, most efficient day; Flipkart’s push came a day later and at a higher cost.
“This season, the shopper had made up their mind before opening the app: the brand, the product and roughly the price. Discounts brought them in, but no longer decided the purchase. The brands that won invested in awareness through September, not just in sale week. Very little discovery happens during the sale itself, so e-commerce has to be planned as a full-funnel channel, not just a purchase channel.” — Vinod M V,Senior Vice President at HiveMinds
“This festive season, Titan Perfumes saw strong year-on-year growth, with clear gains in consideration and conversion over last year. Our full-funnel approach, building awareness early and stepping up engagement around the high-intent moments of BBD, GIF and BFF, kept the momentum going all season.” — Saket Singh Chauhan, E-commerce Head, Titan.
The sale also changed the shape of the day. Big-ticket and home categories moved to the night: electronics peaked at midnight and home & hygiene at 8 pm. Food and health stayed morning categories. Brands that paused campaigns overnight to save budget switched off in the hours when intent was highest.
Not every category bought its growth at the same price. Electronics, food and health grew sales faster than spend. Fashion needed about 10x the spend for about 6x the sales; our teams saw Myntra’s day-one entry and a wave of new brands crowd the auction. Across Flipkart, clicks cost up to 2.5x their normal price and generic searches such as “trolley bag” lost half their efficiency, while branded searches held up. In a crowded sale, branded demand is the cheapest demand a brand can buy.
“We are also witnessing the Q-Comization of e-commerce. Consumers have become accustomed to convenience and instant gratification, and these expectations are spilling into traditional e-commerce. For instance, in the electronic gadgets category on a leading marketplace, conversion dropped from 4% to 2% when delivery timelines shifted from next-day to 4–7 days. Speed is increasingly becoming a conversion driver, not just a fulfilment advantage.” — Aayush Arora, Senior Vice President at HiveMinds
Quick commerce, meanwhile, ran a festival of its own. For a grocery and wellness brand we manage, quick-commerce offtake grew 10% through October. Daily staples grew while dry fruits, a classic gift, slipped: considered gifting went to the marketplaces, and quick commerce kept the same-day festival basket around Karwa Chauth and Teej. There was no parallel sale. Prices appear to have been matched selectively rather than cut across the board; brands fought for the shelf rather than the bid, and wherever visibility rose, sales followed. The independent apps grew while the marketplaces’ own quick-commerce arms dipped. And quick commerce didn’t eat e-commerce FMCG, which still grew 2–3.5x on the marketplaces.
In beauty, Korean skincare went from niche to nearly half of the portfolio we run for a leading beauty retailer. Fashion-first platforms are introducing new categories to shoppers who already visit them: a leading oral-care brand built a strong business on one this season. Audio and fragrances, which our teams had seen drifting to quick commerce, grew strongly on the marketplaces during the sale, though at a cost. For brands, the next growth channel may be a platform they never considered part of their category.
“Festive is no longer just a sale event; it’s a consumption window, and brands need to build demand well before it. One strategy won’t fit every category: media, pricing and investment must follow each category’s purchase cycle. The line between e-commerce and quick commerce is blurring, making availability and speed real advantages. And with Flipkart accelerating, Bharat is emerging as the next growth engine.” —Kunal Danda Senior Vice President (SVP) – Client Success at HiveMinds
The brands that win the next festive season will plan for the shopper’s mission, not the channel. They will earn a place on the shortlist before the sale, convert on day one, and stay visible on the quick-commerce shelf every day in between.
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