Rising raw material and packaging costs, fueled by broader inflation and geopolitical uncertainties, are set to weigh on sales growth during ecommerce companies’ mid-year promotional events this year.
Online sales volumes are expected to grow about 10-15%, compared with 20% last year when Independence Day and Raksha Bandhan coincided.
Demand during this window is typically lifted by Raksha Bandhan gifting, but this year, the festival falls nearly a fortnight after the sales wrap up.
Discounts could be lower this year as companies are seeing a 10-40% increase in raw material costs, depending on categories.
Platforms are likely to rely on zero-cost EMI, bank offers and cashback offers to promote sales, according to Ashish Dhir, senior director, consumer and retail at market intelligence firm 1Lattice.
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“The banners offering 30%, 50% or 60% off that we saw earlier are unlikely to be as prevalent this time,” he said.
Raksha Bandhan on August 28 is expected to generate 14-15 million orders in a single day for quick commerce platforms, up from 8-9 million a year earlier.
Eternal-owned District expects offline shopping to become its second-biggest business within three years, as it expands beyond dining, movies, and events into a “going out” super app, CEO Rahul Ganjoo told us.
Dining will stay the largest category en route to a $3 billion net order value target, but retail is growing fast enough to overtake movies.
“Offline shopping is huge, though how much of that is addressable remains to be seen, since we’re primarily focussed on the top six cities. But both dining and shopping are massive offline behaviours we’re trying to capture,” Ganjoo said.
They are underway with expansion plans, with the company ruling out expanding into travel for now, saying it does not see a clear competitive advantage in the segment.
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Rahul Ganjoo said, “We have individual competitors in each segment… a few players in dining, a couple in movies and events, though more are entering, some coming from adjacent areas like food delivery.
In stores, maybe MagicPin was addressing part of that space, but not quite the way they’re approaching it, so there’s no like-for-like today,” he said.
District is focusing on cross-category engagement, which has nearly doubled in eight months; peak-day usage up to three times normal.
In Q1FY27, NOV rose 60% YoY to Rs 3,218 crore, though adjusted Ebitda loss widened to Rs 65 crore.
Eternal attributed the growth to seasonality while flagging that movies and events keep the business lumpy.
