Online retailers across the country recorded a festive-season uplift of as much as 40 percent over the opening three days compared with the same period a year earlier, with company executives pointing to stronger appetite for premium goods as the primary driver, even as fuel-driven cost pressures weighed on household budgets.
Orders flowing to quick-commerce platforms have broadened beyond fast-moving consumer goods, with leaders at FMCG, apparel, and electronics firms noting that smaller household items and personal electronics have joined the categories drawing buyers to those channels. From Sunday midnight onward, purchasing activity picked up across northern and southern regions, timed to the opening of the Navratri festival and the close of the Shradh observance period.
Haier India's chief executive, Satish NS, noted that the arrival of Navratri gave an additional push to what had already been a strong opening period for sales. A year-on-year uplift of more than 30 percent across the opening three days was attributed to buyers trading up toward higher-value products, according to his account.
Packaged food demand at Parle Products climbed between 45 percent and 50 percent, with mid-sized and large packs driving the bulk of that growth, according to the company's chief marketing officer, Mayank Shah. Consumer appetite for products with distinct formulations and health-oriented profiles has been growing, as has activity on quick-commerce platforms, according to the executive. Transaction sizes on quick-commerce platforms have climbed between 15 and 20 percent across urban markets, while non-metropolitan areas are drawing in consumers who are placing orders through these services for the first time, according to him.
Where consumer electronics and handsets are concerned, a run of successive price increases has weighed on appetite at the mass-market end, while stronger activity in the premium tier has helped absorb some of that strain. Super Plastronics, the television manufacturer behind the Kodak, Thomson and Blaupunkt brand licences, posted a 10 percent year-on-year rise over the first two days of the sale period, with that pace doubling to 20 percent once Sunday midnight arrived.
Sales of 55-inch and 65-inch television sets posted growth above 20 percent during the period, even as demand for 32-inch models contracted, according to chief executive Avneet Singh Marwah. Ravi Saxena, who leads Wonderchef as its chief executive, reported that revenue across the opening three days ran roughly a fifth above the comparable period from the previous year, with demand for higher-end products driving that gain. When stock markets softened and unease took hold across the wider global economy, demand at the lower end of the market retreated, according to his account.
Data from Counterpoint Research showed handsets carrying price tags above ₹45,000 held their ground even as total mobile phone volumes fell by 12 percent. Research director Tarun Pathak noted that the premium phone category stood as the sole segment recording expansion, a position he argued would translate into overall value growth across the broader smartphone market.
Memory-chip costs, driven upward by AI data-centre demand, have fed through to consumer electronics, with smartphone prices climbing an estimated 35 to 40 percent and laptops and televisions each running roughly 25 percent higher than they did a year ago. Pricing pressures across home appliances, fast-moving consumer goods, apparel, and footwear have built up through a combination of elevated commodity costs, rising freight rates, and a weakening rupee tied to the West Asia conflict.
