India's festive season promises strong show as quick commerce reshapes online shopping battle

New Delhi: India's e-commerce and quick commerce platforms are gearing up for the festive season, with industry and analysts expecting healthy value growth and divergent spending trends, as strong consumer appetite for premium products co-exists alongside bargain-hunting by value-conscious shoppers.

A key growth engine in e-tailing, quick commerce's widening appeal beyond everyday groceries into fashion, electronics, and beauty is likely to gather further pace this festive season, building on the gains during the recent festival-led shopping cycles.

Shubham Nimkar, Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research, believes the festive season will be "healthy in value terms, but more measured in volume terms".


While consumers will be willing to spend, higher prices are making them more selective, he said, with premium products in the consumer electronics segment likely to perform well, even as value-conscious consumers stay highly deal-driven.

He added that rising smartphone prices, driven by higher memory costs, could push consumers to time purchases more closely around major online sales events.

A report by research consultancy Infisum projected India's e-commerce market to nearly triple from USD 125 billion in 2024 to USD 345 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual rate of 18.4 per cent and propelled by the rapid expansion of quick commerce and artificial intelligence (AI) integration.

By the end of the decade, e-commerce is expected to account for 10-12 per cent of India's retail spending and serve 420-440 million online shoppers, the report said.

Quick commerce continues to expand beyond its traditional grocery stronghold.

Devendra Meel, Chief Business Officer at Zepto, said festive shopping is becoming more diverse, with brands introducing festive-specific stock-keeping units for different occasions and regions, including smaller festivals such as Ekadashi and Teej.

Nimkar noted that consumers were increasingly comfortable using quick commerce for consumer electronics and urgent purchases, though categories requiring discovery, assortment and price comparison would continue to favour traditional e-commerce.

Achint Setia, Chief Executive Officer of Snapdeal, said quick commerce is "largely solving for immediacy in metro India", while its non-metro consumers are shopping with intent and comparing value, viewing the two formats as serving different occasions rather than directly competing.

"Value-seeking remains the dominant behaviour for the consumer we serve. Our buyer is looking for quality at the right price, not a brand premium. That said, 'value' doesn't mean the cheapest possible option.

"We're seeing consumers trade up within their budget, upgrading to better quality or more aspirational products, as long as the price stays sensible. It's aspiration within a value frame, not premiumisation in the way it plays out for metro, brand-led shoppers," he said.

Non-metro India continues to be described as central to festive demand.

Setia said more than 80 per cent of Snapdeal's sales came from non-metro regions.

A Meesho spokesperson said 73 per cent of the platform's orders during Rakhi came from non-metro markets, with seller participation up 72 per cent year-on-year.

The Infisum report also found that 66 per cent of new D2C orders now originate from Tier II and Tier III cities.

AI-native retail technology company Fynd's Chief Business Officer Ragini Varma said the festive demand window is shifting earlier, rather than simply becoming more concentrated around Diwali.

"Fynd's data shows that pre-Navratri D2C order volumes were already up 16 per cent year-on-year in August 2025, making the pre-season an increasingly important selling window.

"In 2025, D2C GMV around Diwali grew 47 per cent year-on-year, compared with 34 per cent in 2024. For 2026, our expectation is that this earlier demand pattern will continue, with D2C Diwali GMV growth projected at 35-40 per cent," she said.

Artificial intelligence was flagged repeatedly as a growing influence on shopping behaviour.

Setia said 76 per cent of Snapdeal's orders were now influenced by AI in some form, citing its "Snap & Shop" image-based search tool.

The Meesho spokesperson said the company's AI-led discovery systems were helping personalise recommendations and identify hyperlocal trends, with creator-led video content expected to play a bigger role this season.

The Infisum report projected AI and machine learning would improve retail productivity by 35-37 per cent by 2030 through conversational commerce, virtual try-ons and voice-enabled shopping.

On the employment front, Amazon India said it has created more than 1.6 lakh seasonal work opportunities across its pan-India operations network spanning over 400 cities, including tens of thousands of roles within its Amazon Now quick commerce network.

Meesho expects to enable over 10 lakh indirect seasonal job opportunities this festive season, including about 6.5 lakh across its seller network and 3.75 lakh across its logistics ecosystem, with roughly 1.3 lakh sellers expected to hire seasonal workers for packaging, manufacturing and warehousing.

In contrast, Zepto's Chief Operating Officer Vikas Sharma said the company invests in a "stable, permanent workforce rather than relying on temporary staffing", even during peak demand, with a focus on training and upskilling.

Nimkar said festive demand pulled forward by discounting would likely be followed by a softer December-January period, though in categories such as smartphones and appliances, genuine replacement and upgrade needs meant the slowdown would represent a normalisation rather than a shift in consumption.