How Women are Driving India's Festive Online Shopping Surge

By: Priyanka Bhargav, Senior Director, Flipkart

As the festive sparkle lights up India’s cities and small towns, another glow shines in the consumer goods category across India. The market expects to see a 20%–35% growth in sales in the 2025 festive season as compared to last year.

Once seen as cautious digital adopters, Indian women are now the driving force behind e-commerce’s biggest festive boom. This season, they are shopping with purpose and personality, upgrading to premium fashion and lifestyle brands, and embracing ingredient-based beauty products that blend science with self-care. Gen Z women, in particular, are reshaping how trends are discovered, with 72% finding inspiration through creators and influencers and 30% of their purchases driven by creator-led content.

As Priyanka Bhargav, Senior Director at Flipkart, notes, one in every two e-commerce shoppers today is a woman. This isn’t just shopping, it’s a celebration of confidence, choice, and connection in the digital age.

Priyanka shares with us some of her observations about women’s emergence as a strong consumer demographic for online shopping. She also highlights the key strategies that brands are leveraging to attract women consumers.

Women have emerged as a strong consumer demographic for Indian e-commerce platforms. What are some spending trends of Indian women that you see developing around the festive season?

1 in every 2 ecommerce shoppers is a woman, and the women's cohort is leading the game on net commerce growth as well. Some of the important shopping trends that are emerging are as follows,

Indian women are upgrading their shopping game; throughout the year, it's more about trends, and during the festive season, they are looking for premium brands in fashion & lifestyle.

Scientific obsession is gaining ground. In Beauty, ingredient-based shopping is taking precedence over others, Niacinamide, hyaluronic, ceramide, etc.

Creators is the new search route; 72% Gen Z women are searching and discovering new trends via the creators and influencers. 30% of the shopping decisions are influenced by the creators.

Scent - Sational - where mood meets memory, Smell Maxxing (Fragrance layering as a form of scent-enhanced self-presentation and status signaling.), Gourmand Fragrance Boom (Dessert-inspired scents that blend nostalgia with indulgence.), Fragrance reawakening (embracing fragrance as part of their daily confidence ritual)

Within electronics, women shoppers are searching for styles and colors that depict their personality. Color, make, and Finish are more important to the women shopper base.

What innovative strategies is the online shopping platform is using to attract women buyers this festive season?

Key Trends & Strategies that I have observed across various platforms are as follows:

Creator-led, short-form video + Reels, UGC, Rating, and reviews help in validation and making the right choices

Brands are collaborating with creators/influencers (especially micro + regional ones) to produce Reels, short product demos, festive look videos, etc. These formats feel more authentic and are more trusted.  User-generated content (UGC), especially unboxing, styling videos, etc, is being used heavily in ads and social media. Helps build trust and helps women shoppers visualize the product in “real life” settings.

AI / Personalization and Customization

Using AI or ML to recommend products based on browsing history, preference, previous purchases, etc. Festive “gift finder” tools are becoming more common. This helps reduce choice overload and make a more curated, relevant shopping journey. Recommended For You is found very useful. Viewing similar products helps sharpen the search. Image searches are making searches surgical, etc.

Regional / Cultural Customization

Local languages, regional influencers, and festival-specific messaging that reflects local traditions or regional festivals (not just pan-India generic) are being used more. This helps brands connect more authentically with women shoppers.

Themed launches: specific capsule collections for certain festivals or regions, using local craft, textiles, designs, etc. Also, regional festival timings and product assortments are being tailored accordingly.

Speed / Fulfillment

Faster delivery / express delivery options are big draws. Women shoppers particularly value reliability, tracking, and being able to get gifts/home items quickly during the compressed festive period is a huge attraction.

Pricing & Payment Options

Flexible payment modes: UPI, wallets, options, and easy EMI for higher value items. These make premium purchases more accessible.

Free shipping thresholds, free returns, or gift wrap above a certain value, etc. These add incentives to buy more or reduce purchase friction.

Hyper-local / Pincode / Geo-targeted Marketing

Targeting by pincode/locality: showing what’s available locally, timing delivery promises accordingly. Using local festivals, local social media channels. Helps appeal to women in smaller cities or towns.