India’s e-commerce sector is in full swing for the 2025 festive season with unprecedented momentum, as shoppers across metros and non-metros turn to online platforms for everything from fashion and electronics to home décor and groceries. Early data from multiple industry reports suggest that the first week of festive sales alone has already crossed Rs 60,000 crore, reflecting a nearly 29% year-on-year growth.
Analysts note that front-loaded buying, attractive discounts, and GST-driven price advantages have played a key role in accelerating this surge. While smartphones and electronics remain top contributors in terms of value, categories such as ethnic wear, beauty, and home appliances have seen the fastest growth, signalling a shift in consumer preferences toward a more diverse festive basket.
Research firm Redseer forecasts total festive e-commerce GMV could reach Rs1.15 lakh crore, up 20–25% from last year. The report highlights a dual-peak pattern, where early purchases dominate the initial leg of sales, followed by a second wave of spending on premium and big-ticket items post-Diwali.
According to NielsenIQ, the festive shopping wave is no longer confined to metropolitan hubs. Digital adoption in tier 2+ cities is rising sharply, with regional and localised campaigns becoming critical for engaging new customers. Products ranging from sweets to digital-first brands are witnessing growing traction, illustrating how festive shopping is evolving into a more inclusive, pan-India phenomenon.
Survey insights from LocalCircles, confirm that urban households increasingly prefer online channels for their festive purchases, with more than double the number planning to buy primarily online compared to last year. This trend reflects rising trust in platform reliability, delivery speed, and return policies.
E-commerce platforms are also leveraging technology and personalisation to further enhance the shopping experience. Tools like AI-driven assistants, hyper-local widgets, and interactive livestreaming are enabling culturally relevant, seamless shopping journeys for millions of consumers.
The combination of strong consumer demand, regional expansion, and technology-driven engagement suggests that the 2025 festive season could be one of the most transformative in India’s e-commerce history, setting new benchmarks for scale, reach, and customer experience.
Storytelling-led campaigns and regional resonance
For many brands, the festival period has evolved from being purely transactional to deeply cultural. Kejal Parekh, Director of Marketing at Myntra, explained, “The festive season is a cornerstone of our annual marketing calendar, where we combine scale with storytelling to create high-impact cultural moments. Regional advertising continues to be a key growth driver; collaborations with regional creators achieved a reach of over 63 million and strong engagement, underscoring the power of authentic, localised storytelling.”
Similarly, Amazon India has adopted a blended approach of entertainment and education through live, interactive experiences. Zahid Khan, Director, Shopping Experience at Amazon India, shared, “Within the first 48 hours alone, Amazon Live featured over 40 hours of engaging content with mega influencers, category experts, and celebrities, blending inspiration with information seamlessly. Notably, Tier 2+ cities accounted for nearly 70% of engaged customers, reflecting the platform’s growing reach beyond metros.”
Meanwhile, the gifting category has emerged as a major growth lever this year. Tarun Joshi, Founder and CEO of IGP, highlighted the importance of consumer education in driving discovery and loyalty, “For IGP, we launched the Diwali gifting edit, which is more like education to consumers as to how they should start thinking about the whole gifting phenomenon, what kind of products are in trend, what kind of packaging are in trend. Then we take it over to a lot more localised marketing. We are present in 30 cities, targeting micro-localities via micro-influencers who are popular in their areas.”
Joshi added that consumer behaviour this year reflects a renewed sense of optimism: “People are looking forward to not only going offline and looking at stores, but also a lot more coming online and checking out prices. There is definitely a better euphoria this year compared to any other year.”
Understanding consumer psychology and seasonal spikes
For Dr. Yashawant Kumar, Founder and CEO of Benefic Nutrition, emphasised the role of consumer psychology in festive e-commerce: “We keep money parked for this season. People are in a mindset to spend. There are certain periods in the year when consumers are ready, and this is one of them.”
He added, “When major e-commerce platforms launch sales simultaneously, it creates a FOMO moment. Marketing, in my opinion, is human psychology — being at the right place, at the right time, with the right message.”
Meanwhile, Rahul Dayama, Founding Partner at Urbanic, observed, “We focus on the whole Q4 together because with the category we offer, people shopping around Diwali, then winter, then vacation, and athleisure wear are all peaking. Our strategy is divided equally across the months at the end of the year.”
Dayama also noted the importance of community-driven marketing: “We as Urbanic have worked really well on community building, so we use our community and organic channels more than paid channels in this segment. Being more creative helps us doing offbeat activities like events and getaways grabs attention without overspending.”
Bundles and curated gifting are increasingly driving conversions. Dr. Kumar noted, “Consumers prefer buying specific products, with minor surprise gifts. Bundling works only when it resonates emotionally. During the festive season, we see 25% month-on-month growth, expected to increase to 50% in the next couple of months.”
AI and personalisation as growth multipliers
Personalisation has become a defining theme of the 2025 season. Joshi explained how IGP employs AI to optimise both communication and consumer experience: “We use AI in a big way. Firstly, we run multiple creatives to various consumers under test mode, which helps us decipher in a far better and faster way which communication is working the most. Secondly, AI helps us with our gifting social graph communication and social graph are two very important elements.”
In parallel, Dayama highlighted Urbanic’s use of analytics: “We study real-time heat maps of where people are spending time and what their preferences are. It helps us plan inventory, understand queries, and incorporate answers into multiple campaigns. Data plays a critical role not only in marketing but across 360 degrees of consumer engagement.”
For Baby Forest Ayurveda, personalisation extends into storytelling and product design. Aditya Dhawan, Chief Marketing Officer, said, “Our campaigns are designed around rituals of gifting, nurturing, and wellness rooted in Ayurveda. Through targeted digital media, influencer collaborations, and festive-themed bundles, we ensure visibility while maintaining the brand’s luxury, organic ethos.”
Dhawan elaborated on regional differentiation: “During Onam and Pongal, our campaigns highlighted Ayurvedic bathing rituals featuring coconut-based care, while in North India we focused on winter nourishment with ghee and almond formulations celebrating rituals mothers naturally pass on through generations.”
Across platforms, brands are seeing stronger conversions through bundling and curated value offerings. Dhawan explained, “Instead of deep discounts, we focus on value-led bundles that highlight holistic care. Limited-edition gift packaging and complimentary Ayurvedic trial kits have been more effective in driving conversions while maintaining brand premium positioning.”
Meanwhile, Joshi observed a similar pattern at IGP: “Bundling works very well for us because typically consumers come with a pre-set budget in mind, and when they see a very high perceived value in that, conversion is much higher. This has given at least 50% better conversion rates compared to non-bundled products.”
Dayama added, “When it comes to rewards like discounts and consumer rewards, people look for that during the festive season because it increases the motive to purchase. We focus on value-driven rewards on a membership basis, creating interesting segmentations on particular products rather than slashing prices across the board.”
He further explained, “Value-driven discounts on membership and bundles work really well. Direct cash discounts, such as Rs 500 off flat, give clear visibility and perform better than issuing multiple coupon codes.”
Logistics and influencer strategies
Operational efficiency remains crucial amid this surge. Joshi shared details of IGP’s in-house logistics push “During this festival season, we are expected to travel almost 6 to 8 lakh kilometers on our own bikes to deliver all the products we are receiving orders for. It was all about moving towards a captive logistics model, which has helped us a lot.”
Dr. Kumar emphasised that instant gratification drives loyalty: “Next-day delivery is crucial for festive relevance. We maintain 20% extra stock to handle demand and use AI for logistics planning. Being listed on Blinkit, Zepto, Amazon, and 1MG builds trust. Offline retail still matters 75% of India buys supplements offline, so we work with pharmacy chains and offer small pack sizes starting from Rs10.”
Influencer collaborations particularly with micro and mid-tier creators – have also become vital. Dayama described Urbanic’s approach to influencer marketing: “We select influencers based on content creation skills and engagement rather than follower count. Over six years, we’ve worked with more than 30,000 influencers, using past campaign data to inform current strategies. We also integrate affiliate models to drive sales efficiently.”
Meanwhile, Dhawan added,“We partner with credible momfluencers, pediatricians, and wellness advocates who genuinely use and believe in Ayurvedic care – authenticity is key for us. These collaborations not only boosted engagement but also strengthened word-of-mouth credibility.”
Digital marketing and festive growth
Digital advertising spend has surged alongside online sales. Joshi noted, “Digital is taking a very large share of the marketing spend. Influencer marketing, which I call curated content, is picking up. We are seeing less of traditional ads and more about curated purchases, digital-first, and therefore final purchases going more digital. I expect online purchases to be at least about 50% higher compared to traditional channels.”
In parallel, Dayama explained, “We use AI and analytics to track consumer behaviour, optimise messaging, and address queries during high-traffic periods. Community consistency, authenticity, and purpose-driven campaigns play very important roles in maintaining engagement throughout the season.”
Regarding seasonal revenue spikes, Dayama added, “The jump during the festive season is quite high because shopping is at its peak. Normal days see almost 30% lower activity compared to festive days. Even during non-festive periods, we have strong traffic, with daily active users between 2 million and 2.5 million per day.”
As India’s e-commerce players double down on hyper-local engagement, AI-led personalisation, curated influencer strategies, and value-driven gifting innovations, the 2025 festive season is shaping up to be one of the most transformative in the sector’s history, setting new benchmarks for scale, inclusivity, and digital sophistication.
