In the weeks leading up to Diwali—marked on Sunday with fireworks lighting up the skies—both retailers and consumers transformed. Defying early predictions of gloom, e-commerce majors witnessed a sales uptick of approximately 25 percent over the previous year.

Industry analysts reported that festive sales in October crossed 1.5 trillion rupees (around $15.94 billion), while physical retail registered equally unexpected double-digit growth as well.

“The festive season has seen a lot of consumption,” Ravi Kapoor, partner and retail and Consumer Sector leader at PwC India, told Sourcing Journal. “But it has been very nuanced. Some categories have been facing headwinds because of pricing and availability. Apparel and accessories have been quite buoyant, but there has not been one consistent trend—the markets have been sporadic and responsive in pockets.”

Other analysts agree: sporadic indeed, but consumer enthusiasm ran high this festive season across different formats. Volume was largely driven by e-commerce, the premium segment by physical retail, and immediacy by quick commerce.

None of these boundaries were watertight; instead, there was a fluid, free flow between formats as omnichannel retail drove consumers to make quicker choices, heavily incentivized by steep discounts.

Prying open consumer wallets were a series of major sales events in October. Myntra’s Big Fashion Festival, for example, saw direct-to-consumer (D2C) and international brands achieve nearly twice their regular daily order volumes, while its “M-Now” rapid delivery service reported double-digit order growth.

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