Diwali shopping: Online fashion, home goods sales multiply
India just wrapped up one of its most extravagant festive seasons, with spending hitting a massive ₹12-14 lakh crore (about $135-158 billion).
Thanks to super-low inflation, big GST tax breaks, and rising household wealth (including gold values soaring), people had more cash to splash—and they definitely did.
Peak-day sales jumps of 30-71% across categories
Shopping went digital in a big way: 93% of shoppers bought online this year.
Categories like home saw sales multiply up to three times, while fashion saw a peak-day jump of 71% and a 30% average uplift.
Even car bookings broke records—Maruti Suzuki alone got 450,000 orders in just a few weeks, up 50% from last year.
Appliance sales for things like dishwashers doubled, while big TVs and refrigerators saw increases of more than 60%.
Retailers run out of stock
All this shopping left stores scrambling to keep up.
Many retailers ran out of stock during the rush and now say it could take over a month to restock shelves as they adjust to the new normal of high demand.