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This festive season wasn’t just about jewellery brands flaunting new collections or automobile companies pushing out limited-edition models. Nor was it only about the usual e-commerce rush led by smartphone and electronics deals on Amazon and Flipkart. The real spotlight this year shifted to quick commerce platforms Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, Blinkit, and BigBasket, which together recorded a 120% surge in order volumes, according to Unicommerce.
Once known mainly for grocery top-ups and instant essentials, these platforms turned into full-fledged festive marketplaces. Swiggy Instamart’s first-ever sale, Quick India Movement, saw a triple-digit rise in home décor, health, wellness, and fitness products, signalling how consumers are now using quick commerce for far more than groceries.
This year was also unique as quick commerce platforms saw a sharp uptick in jewellery-related sales, driven by rising gold prices. Swiggy Instamart reported a five-fold spike in gold and silver coin sales just hours before the pooja muhrat of Dhanteras, while BigBasket recorded a 146% jump in gold coins and a 234% rise in silver coins year-on-year.
Also read: Jewellery brands ramp up festive AdEx by 20-40%
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According to Datum Intelligence, both quick commerce ad revenue and sales grew 1.5X compared to August, as brands ramped up investments across September and October. Legacy brands leaned on recall to dominate search ads, while D2C brands doubled down, allocating 20–25% of their marketing budgets to quick commerce this year versus 10–15% last year.
Across India’s broader online retail landscape, the 2025 Diwali festive season recorded 24% YoY growth in order volumes and a 23% rise in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), as per Unicommerce.
But as the festive glitter fades, quick commerce players are bracing for a familiar cooldown. Experts point out that average order values (AOVs) typically jump 8–10% during Diwali week before settling just above pre-festive levels. With nearly 70% of volumes coming from grocery, the post-festive lull hits hardest in the non-essential categories, beauty, gifting, home, and wellness, that drive festive spikes. After weeks of surging sales and ad spends, platforms are now shifting focus to retention, repeat purchases, and micro-seasonal planning to sustain momentum.
Also read: How Q-Comm is the new festive ads stronghold
Post-Festive Reset, Not Slowdown
According to Mitchelle Jansen, Senior Vice President, Business Strategy and Growth at White Rivers Media, once the festive surge subsides, quick commerce platforms shift from acquisition sprints to retention marathons. The heavy discounts taper off, replaced by smarter engagement tactics such as behavioural nudges, curated offers and gamified loyalty programmes that build habit rather than hype. Operations too are streamlined and inventory & workforce are rebalanced to match softer demand. “The savvier players are not chasing scale right now; they’re engineering profitability without losing customer stickiness,” she said.
Ashish Gala, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at VentureSoul Partners, added that festive demand typically starts around mid-September and continues till year-end due to weddings, Christmas, and other events. “It’s usually a high season for everyone, but this year, we’ll likely see a more pronounced lull in November,” he said. Most players plan for this dip; they don’t expect Diwali-level sales to sustain. “In the North, beauty and cosmetics brands switch to winter product lines, and travel-related categories pick up. So, platforms start preparing for the December season during this period,” he added.
November is typically a quieter phase, with many players also using this time to offload excess inventory through discount sales. Experts told e4m that most brands and quick commerce platforms use this downtime to build capacity, launch new categories, or expand into new towns. Some, having recently raised funds, are investing in deeper penetration and infrastructure readiness for the next demand cycle.
“This festive season underlined how quick commerce has matured from an experimental media channel into a performance powerhouse. Q-commerce as a channel is behaving quite similar to its business-as-usual trend,” said Nikhil Dalal, Associate Partner at Redseer Strategy Consultants, noting that while order volumes surged 120%, the base itself has been expanding rapidly. “Around 70% of quick commerce still comes from grocery, which doesn’t depend on festive occasions. The remaining 30%, beauty, home décor, and small electronics, drives the visible festive impact.” This 30% non-grocery segment became the growth story of the season, and brands doubled down to capitalise on it.
Redseer estimates that while festive weeks pushed a 120% year-on-year surge in order volumes, average order value (AoV) spiked more than 10% y-o-y. During the week of Diwali, AoV spiked further by 10% over preceding weeks, but post-Diwali AoV levels stabilized. “It’s not a slowdown in AoV post diwali; it’s a reset,” said Dalal.
Also read: Why are D2C brands redirecting ad spends to quick commerce?
How Quick Commerce Adapts & Engages Post-Diwali
According to Mukesh Agrawal, Co-Founder, The Media Ant, a media buying agency, platforms like Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, and Blinkit have evolved into both discovery and conversion ecosystems. “While outdoor and offline spends remained flat, performance marketing budgets rose 30–40%. Marketing has become far more efficient, platforms now know exactly what works, when, and where,” he said.
Quick commerce’s advertising efficiency is what’s turning heads. Experts note that ROAS for the channel has more than doubled compared to traditional digital media, thanks to the high-intent, time-pressed nature of users. “People typically spend less than 10 minutes browsing,” said Dalal from Redseer. “That makes homepage placements and search ads critical for conversions.”
Platforms are also guiding brands on campaign design, sharing data on top-selling SKUs and optimal visibility slots. For instance, festive chocolates and gifting SKUs perform better in the evenings before Diwali, prompting brands to time campaigns accordingly.
During the post-festive lull, platforms shift from discounting to retention-driven marketing. “You’ll see loyalty credits, curated combo packs, and seasonal campaigns replacing blanket offers,” said Jansen. “It’s about engagement over price — reminding users these apps are convenient, relevant, and part of their daily rhythm.”
To sustain visibility, brands deploy micro-seasonal campaigns, winter care, Christmas gifting, and regional festivals like Chhath Puja. “These smaller peaks keep the ecosystem active,” explained Dalal. “The ROI focus is sharper now; every rupee must drive engagement or repeat purchase.”
Satish Meena, Founder of Datum Intelligence, a market research and data intelligence firm, noted that platforms are also using this time to onboard new D2C snack, beauty, and home brands to refresh catalogues and attract exploratory shoppers.
Dr. Ashvini Jakhar, Founder & CEO of Prozo, added, “Retention is high because quick commerce has become habit-forming. But this phase is also critical for supply chain recalibration, managing returns, restocking, and prepping warehouses for the next micro-season.”
According to Jansen, driven by influencer tie-ups, programmatic buys, and contextual festive storytelling, ad spends rise 25–30% during diwali,
According to Renu Bisht, Founder & CEO of Commercify 360, platform’s performance hinges on a simple principle: “If a brand is being searched by a customer, it tends to drive higher sales. If it invests in ads to appear at the top of those search results, the impact multiplies. But if it doesn’t show up in that critical window, traction drops sharply.”
“Quick commerce isn’t designed for brand awareness, it’s built for instant gratification and conversions,” she added.
Brands Rework Their Playbooks
This festive season also marked a shift in how brands approached creative and media strategies. Moving beyond blanket discounts, quick commerce leaned on UI/UX-led storytelling and hyperlocal engagement, using festive-themed redesigns, push notifications, and homepage banners to drive discovery. Campaigns like Blinkit’s Quick India Movement and Zepto’s curated gift boxes reflected this focus on personalised, city-specific engagement that went beyond promotions.
These data-backed activations helped platforms spotlight new categories and cross-sell festive essentials like lighting, décor, sweets, and puja samagri, which drew significant traffic as shoppers came to browse and explore rather than simply restock.
After jewellery, home décor in particular witnessed strong traction, as consumers upgraded their living spaces and purchased last-minute items like lights and curtains for Dhanteras — driven by impulse buys and better category visibility on quick commerce platforms. Industry trackers observed that these non-grocery segments not only drove festive spikes but are showing sustained traction post-Diwali.
According to Meena, D2C brands allocated 20–25% of their festive marketing budgets to quick commerce this year, up from 10–15% last year, while some new entrants spent nearly twice as much to gain visibility.
Platforms responded with co-branded campaigns such as Blinkit x FabIndia and Blinkit x boAt, highlighting both assortment depth and delivery immediacy.
ZILO, for instance, focussed on expanding its store network, opening new pincodes, and deepening brand partnerships to improve delivery speed and consumer experience. “Our goal is to keep solving for the consumer — whether during peak demand or the quiet phase that follows,” said its co-founders. “With the right structural inputs, personalisation, and selection depth, engagement becomes sustainable rather than seasonal.”
For Prozo, the festive quarter was among its strongest, with 20–25% YoY growth in outbound throughput across FMCG, consumer durables, and D2C. “After the peak, dispatch volumes have stabilised but remain higher than last year’s base,” said Dr. Jakhar.
Quick Commerce Becomes Marketer’s New Frontline
If last year marked the arrival of quick commerce as a sales channel, this festive season firmly established it as an advertising powerhouse, one that delivers measurable conversions, instant visibility, and real-time performance insights. “It’s where frequency, intent, and convenience intersect,” said Agrawal. “Every marketer wants to be seen in that 10-minute window when the user is ready to buy.”
According to Dalal this 10-minute window is crucial for both platforms and marketers. “The right kind of marketing at the right time is critical — if a consumer searches for a product and doesn’t find it instantly, they’re likely to switch to another app,” he noted.
The festive period compressed a month’s worth of marketing intensity into just a few days, with ad spends rising 25–30% across influencer tie-ups, programmatic media, and contextual storytelling. But as experts pointed out, the smartest marketers viewed this not just as a visibility burst, but as a data-capture phase, building richer remarketing cohorts for the quieter months ahead.
“Typically, if you look at the October–December quarter, around 50% of orders come during the festive period, while the remaining 50% are spread across the next two months,” said ecommerce analyst Meena. “Right after Diwali, there’s a natural dip, but platforms are already preparing for the next wave, Christmas, New Year, and even Halloween in a few top cities. They’ve also lined up early November sales to keep momentum going. Unlike e-commerce, which sees a sharper festive peak, quick commerce now has a strong base that ensures steady volumes even after the festive rush.”
The post-festive period, therefore, isn’t a slowdown but a strategic reset. The festive highs may fade, but the behavioural shift they have triggered ensures that quick commerce remains the marketer’s new frontline well beyond Diwali.