E-com Biggies Start Festive Season Sales A Day After GST Rate Cut
Though the sales start on September 23, with early access on September 22, the e-commerce biggies are trying to capture sales from offline retailers after the GST rate cut
Chennai: Major e-commerce players like Amazon and Flipkart have timed their Diwali festive season sales from September 23, a day after the new GST rates come into effect. While the new rates are expected to push consumption this festive season, RedSeer Consultancy has projected a gross merchandise value of Rs 1.15 lakh crore this year, lower than Rs 1.2 lakh crore predicted last year.
Though the sales start on September 23, with early access on September 22, the e-commerce biggies are trying to capture sales from offline retailers after the GST rate cut. The purchases of big-ticket items have remained sluggish since August 15 after the announcement of the rate cut.
Amazon has announced a vast selection of over 1 lakh products, exciting deals and offers, and over 30,000 new launches from some of the biggest brands.
Amazon has strengthened its operations network ahead of the festive season with 45 new delivery stations across India, expanding its last-mile network to approximately 2,000 stations nationwide. This complements the company's recent addition of 12 new fulfilment centres and 6 sort centres, which added 8.6 million cubic feet of storage capacity and 500K square feet of sortation area.
To support this expanded network, Amazon has created over 150,000 seasonal work opportunities. The enhanced infrastructure enables same-day delivery to 50 per cent more cities and next-day delivery to twice as many locations compared to last year, bringing greater speed and reliability to customers nationwide, including those in tier II and III cities.
Flipkart’s The Big Billion Days (TBBD) 2025 will start from 23rd September, with 24-hour early access for Flipkart Black and Plus members beginning on 22nd September. This The Big Billion Days sale, Flipkart Minutes will provide 10-minute delivery across 19 cities and 3,000 pin codes.
Shopsy, Flipkart’s hyper value platform, will offer products at just Rs 29 and the best value across 1,300 categories, with over one crore products under Rs 149. Flipkart has created over 2.2 lakh additional seasonal job opportunities across warehousing, logistics, and last-mile delivery roles. Of this, 15 per cent are first-time workforce entrants. Flipkart has expanded 35 lakh sq. ft. of fulfilment centre area and covers over 21,000 pin codes. It also added 400 new micro-fulfilment centres and dark stores across 19 cities for quick delivery.
Meanwhile, RedSeer Consulting expects festive season sales to grow 20–25 per cent this festive season, generating over Rs 1.15 lakh crore GMV. Quick commerce and value commerce are expanding faster than ever. GST reforms are set to unlock sharper value realization across categories, finds RedSeer. However, RedSeer had projected Rs 1 lakh crore – Rs 1.2 lakh crore festive season sales in 2024. The actual sales were lower at Rs 95,000 crore.
Datum Intelligence has projected that festive season sales in 2025 could rise by as much as 27 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1.2 lakh crore — up from nearly Rs 1 lakh crore in 2024 and Rs 81,000 crore in 2023.
