Indian online shoppers splurge 14 per cent more this August

GURUGRAM: Forget the slowdown chatter. Indian ecommerce just had its best August yet, and the numbers tell a story of shoppers who simply could not stop clicking buy. Data from partner network Admitad, part of Mitgo, shows online orders during peak sales days climbed 14 per cent compared with last year and a thumping 27 per cent above an ordinary day in 2026. Total spend jumped 16 per cent, with the average basket now worth $39.

The scale of the study lends it heft. Admitad crunched over 400,000 transactions across August 2025 and 2026, benchmarking festive-period buying against everyday shopper behaviour. The verdict is unambiguous: Indians shop hardest around Independence Day. The busiest stretches were August 6-9 and 13-17, with the 14th and 15th emerging as the undisputed peak, brands timing their biggest discounts to coincide with the national holiday. Mobile devices now account for 55 per cent of purchases, confirming that the smartphone, not the desktop, is where Indian retail decisions get made.

Category-wise, fashion remains king, cornering 28 per cent of sales, trailed by home goods at 20 per cent and electronics at 18 per cent. Beauty and self-care took 9 per cent, toys and hobbies 7 per cent, automobiles 6 per cent, sports and entertainment 3 per cent, and jewellery and luxury goods a modest but fast-growing 2 per cent. Speaking of growth, jewellery and accessories posted the sharpest year-on-year jump at 19 per cent, with electronics close behind at 18 per cent and fashion at 14 per cent.

Education, interestingly, had a moment too. Demand for online courses surged 25 per cent above regular sales periods, a seasonal quirk driven by students stacking supplementary programmes alongside school and college schedules. Geographically, the appetite was led by shoppers in New Delhi, Jaipur, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai and Hyderabad, a spread that underlines how festive buying is no longer a metro-only phenomenon.

What actually nudges Indians to hit purchase? Coupons, overwhelmingly. Over 38 per cent of shoppers cited a discount code as the deciding factor. Recommendations from online media and content platforms swayed 15 per cent, mobile app advertising another 12 per cent, cashback offers 10 per cent, and well-placed contextual advertising 8 per cent. Personalised offers, Admitad notes, are increasingly winning out over blanket discounts, a shift brands would do well to heed.

Samrat Dutta, head of Mitgo APAC, reckons the momentum will roll straight into the festive fourth quarter. “The positive trend for Indian brands, driven by the August sales, will continue into the fall. In November, we expect online sales to grow by 15-17 per cent compared to last year,” he says, adding that businesses are leaning harder into affiliate marketing, a model that ties spend directly to results at a time when marketing budgets need to work overtime.