Brands
bigbasket reports 156 per cent growth in Raksha Bandhan sales this year
Shoppers started nearly a month early this year, and swapped a simple thread for sweets, chocolates and curated gifting sets on a scale that stacks nine Everests high
BENGALURU: Raksha Bandhan used to mean one thing, a rakhi tied on a wrist, a sweet exchanged, done by lunchtime. This year, according to bigbasket, that entire premise has quietly gone out the window. The Tata-owned quick commerce platform reports that festive shopping began nearly a month ahead of the occasion, with sales across rakhis, sweets and chocolates growing a startling 156 per cent over last year, and more than half a million rakhis and gifting items delivered through the period.
The numbers get more interesting the deeper you go. Sweets sales more than doubled, chocolates grew 148 per cent, and curated gifting sets very nearly tripled, evidence that customers are no longer treating Raksha Bandhan as a single-item purchase but as a full occasion worth building a basket around. And for all the early shopping, nearly half of all deliveries still landed in the final 48 hours before the festival, suggesting India’s last-minute shopper has not gone anywhere, they have simply added a month of early browsing on top of the usual scramble.
Scale is where the numbers turn properly eye-catching. Placed end to end, the rakhis delivered this season would stack up to nine times the height of Mount Everest, a statistic that says rather more about the sheer volume moving through bigbasket’s network than any percentage figure could. More than half of all rakhi and gifting units sold came from the platform’s private label, Daivya Sparsh, a strong signal that bigbasket’s own-brand push is finding genuine traction rather than simply padding margins.
What is arguably the more important story here is the category creep. Beauty and personal care, fragrances, electronics and general merchandise all saw a lift, with smartwatches and audio accessories emerging as legitimate gifting choices alongside the traditional sweets and thread. Vishal Das, chief buying and merchandising officer at bigbasket, called the shift a broadening of what Raksha Bandhan represents, adding that the company expects the trend to carry momentum into the wider festive season ahead.
For a platform still primarily known for grocery, the data points to something worth watching closely, quick commerce is increasingly becoming the default channel for festive and gifting purchases too, not just the weekly vegetable run.
