Ecommerce festive sales fizzle out on price pangs

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands and executives at ecommerce platforms and logistics firms have flagged a tepid festive season so far, with online delivery dispatches during the first 10 days of Amazon’s Great Indian Festival and Flipkart’s Big Billion Days running 10-12% below the year-ago period. Executives attributed the slowdown to sluggish demand for premium electronics, including smartphones, home appliances and laptops, as prices of these products have risen 30-40% in the past few months.

“Higher prices are prompting consumers to defer purchases or opt for lower-priced alternatives, weighing on sales volumes during one of the industry’s biggest shopping periods,” a senior ecommerce executive said.

On October 12, ET reported that festive sales had opened on a flat note, with ecommerce platforms clocking 29,800-30,900 crore in gross merchandise value (GMV) over the first four days, against 33,200 crore in the same period last year, according to data from Datum Intelligence. GMV is the total value of goods sold through a platform before accounting for discounts and returns, as defined in the data cited.

Smartphones and electronics, which account for more than half of GMV during festive sale events for some platforms, have been hit by price increases, another ecommerce executive said.

According to Counterpoint Research, smartphone unit sales fell 16% year-on-year during the early part of the 2026 festive ecommerce sales period.

“Sales of premium smartphones, such as the latest iPhones and high-end Samsung devices, have been hit by price hikes. Customers who come to marketplaces looking for flagship devices and end up buying more affordable alternatives during sale events are also staying away,” the executive said, adding that traffic at the top of the funnel had been hit.

However, Amazon said consumer interest remained strong.

“Amazon.in recorded over 440 million visits during the opening phase of the Great Indian Festival 2026, its highest ever, with over 72% of visits coming from beyond the top nine metros,” an Amazon India spokesperson told ET. “In the first 24 hours, sellers recorded over 2x the units ordered compared to the same period last year, while overall products sold increased by over 70%. The number of sellers crossing Rs 1 crore in sales during the first 24 hours also grew by over 80% year-on-year.”

Despite that, some brands reported sales sliding as the event progressed.

“When the sales kicked off on October 8, we saw an initial jump of around 4-4.5x compared to business-as-usual (BAU),” said a spokesperson for home and personal care products brand Beco. “However, sales tapered off every day. Growth started at 4.5x, came down to 4x, 3.5x and 3x, and then settled at around 1.7-1.8x BAU levels for the remaining days.”

Flipkart did not respond to ET’s queries.

Prices of electronic devices have risen owing to component shortages as resources have been diverted to feed the artificial intelligence surge. Broader inflation has also been rising owing to global conflicts and costlier food. September inflation in India accelerated to 5.54%, near a two-year high.

Caution prevails

Rising raw material costs have prompted brands and sellers to scale back promotional spending, while ecommerce marketplaces have also been cautious about spending on sales campaigns this year.

“While we have seen around 10% growth in shipments, this is slower than anticipated and much lower than the 18-20% clocked last year during festive sales,” said a senior executive at a logistics company that works with ecommerce marketplaces and brands.

“Ecommerce marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart are particularly recording a slow offtake, even as brands and quick commerce continue to do well. Larger ecommerce marketplaces have also been cautious about how much they are spending to push sales during these events, and that is showing in the numbers so far.”

Average discounts during this year’s festive sales are 35-40% lower than last year, brand founders and executives said, limiting the incentive for consumers to make purchases. The combination of higher product prices and reduced discounts is weighing on demand and raising concerns about festive season growth this year.

“Our growth has been flat this festive season because of supply chain and raw material constraints due to the war. We could have matched last year’s performance more easily if we had not faced supply chain gaps,” said Lokesh Daga, cofounder and CEO of luggage brand Nasher Miles.

However, some brands expect demand to build as the festive calendar progresses. A founder of a beauty and personal care brand said the company expects the sales period “to be longer and perform better than last year, as Dussehra and Diwali fall in separate months this year.”

Dussehra is on October 20-21 and Diwali on November 8.

“This gives consumers a longer shopping window, with additional demand expected around occasions such as Karwa Chauth (October 29) and Diwali,” the founder said.

Beauty and personal care brands, the products of which lend themselves to 10-minute deliveries, have also been seeing growth on quick commerce platforms. Unlike ecommerce marketplaces, which typically run extended festive sales, quick commerce platforms tend to run shorter, event-specific promotions focused on relevant products.

“We have grown 70-80% year-on-year this festive season across channels, including ecommerce and quick commerce,” said Anurag Kedia, founder of Pilgrim. “Some quick commerce platforms have performed better than last year and given us 5-6x sales.”

Demand for beauty and personal care products remains healthy, Kedia said, but a second round of crude oil price increases has raised packaging costs, putting pressure on margins across the category.