Quick Commerce Steals the Festive Show from E-Commerce with 85% Volume Jump

Quick commerce steals the festive season show, with orders jumping 85% in the first week of sale as compared to traditional e-commerce growth, according to an analysis by e-commerce enablement SaaS platform Unicommerce. In contrast, e-commerce order volumes rose only 21% during the same period.

The figures compare the same six-day period last year, which started on September 26, 2024, with this year’s sale period. And the trend, which is based on the analysis of 40 million transactions, highlights the growing consumer preference for faster deliveries, positioning the 10-minute delivery game as a key growth driver in this year’s festive sales.

The key categories that drove overall growth during this period included FMCG—led by healthy foods, followed by beauty & wellness, health & pharma—which saw a strong demand for nutraceuticals & supplements, electronics—fueled by increased sales of home appliances, and home decor products.

Brand websites recorded a 31% increase in volumes, predominantly driven by the beauty and wellness segment, including makeup, personal care, and hygiene products. The fashion category, primarily led by apparel and jewellery, also recorded strong growth.

Geographically, the data revealed that tier 2 and 3 cities continued to drive a significant share of order volumes, collectively accounting for around 58% of the total festive transactions during the first festive week.

While metros and tier 1 cities recorded a 22% increase in order volumes, tier 2 ad 3 cities together registered a 20% growth, compared to the corresponding period last year. The steady year-on-year increase in order volumes from tier  2 and 3 cities also highlights the growing significance of these towns in driving festive season demand.

The increasing participation from smaller towns highlights their growing importance in festive season demand.

The opening weekend of Meesho's festive sale saw 24 crore customers who visited the platform in just three days. It even stated that Meesho witnessed 29,000 orders every minute across categories such as fashion, home & kitchen, personal care, electornic accessories, etc.

Nearly 74% of demand came from tier 2 and 3 markets, while over 48,000 sellers recorded more than 2x order growth compared to business-as-usual days, it said in an official statement.

Similarly, Amazon also stated that tier 2 and 3 cities drove 70% of traffic as customers embraced GST savings and premium products as sellers passed on GST benefits worth crores through the Great Savings Celebration across appliances, fashion, and essentials.

".... attracting over 380 million (38 crore) customer visits with more than 70% coming from beyond India's top 9 metros. Customers enjoyed savings with GST benefits, access to more than 1 lakh products at the lowest prices on Amazon," the e-commerce giant said.

In addition, new customer sign-ups in the first 24 hours grew by 6x above an average business day. Businesses also appreciated the bulk discounts offered by sellers, with bulk orders growing 4.4X over average business days, it added.