The 2026 festive season began in muted fashion, but the performance of some of the key new-age tech stocks in the pre-festive quarter (Q2 FY27) shows that even in this environment businesses are able to extract and expand profits, and grow their topline.

When we see the financial performance of ecommerce, fintech and logistics stocks, it’s clear companies entered this period with a lot more confidence and absorbed some of these headwinds. Pretty much each one of them improved on their profitability metrics and their topline. 

As Inc42 reported in October, early data from the festive season sales indicated that Indian consumers kept shopping, but with more abandon.

Online sales slipped from last year, card spending and smartphone sales weakened, and surveys suggest urban households are trimming discretionary budgets too. Rising household costs, uncertainty over jobs and incomes, and discounts that no longer feel compelling have made shoppers wary of big-ticket purchases. 

Consumers are still browsing for products, but in the current climate, conversion rates have fallen for premium products, which usually see a big uptick. 

A lot of this has to do with the macroeconomic factors, rising energy prices and logistics costs, and lingering grave geopolitical concerns that have dented consumer confidence and spending. 

In Q2, logistics tech players expanded capacity ahead of the festive shopping rush, with higher volumes offering an opportunity to improve operating leverage. Ecommerce companies capitalised on seasonal demand, even as the pressure to balance growth with profitability persisted. 

Meanwhile, fintech companies, particularly those with a big UPI focus, faced a different equation: the prospect of merchant discount rates (MDR) on select UPI transactions.

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