MAM
Republic Day Sales 2026 reveal how India shops now: Unicommerce Analysis
NEW DELHI: If Republic Day Sales were once about loud discounts and one-off splurges, 2026 tells a calmer, more confident story. India’s e-commerce market is growing up and doing so quietly, steadily and far beyond the big cities.
An analysis by Unicommerce, based on over 27 million order items processed on its Uniware platform during the 2025 and 2026 Republic Day sale periods, highlights four clear signals shaping how Indians are shopping today.
The biggest surprise came from smaller cities. Tier 3 markets accounted for nearly 40 per cent of total order items, with volumes growing over 19 per cent year-on-year. Towns such as Kolar, Rohtak, Kamrup, Ernakulam and Khordha led the surge, proving that e-commerce’s next chapter is being written well beyond the metros.
Food and wellness purchases showed especially strong traction. Healthy food volumes more than doubled in Tier 2 cities, while Tier 3 markets contributed around 43 per cent of all food and beverage orders, underlining how online shopping has become part of everyday life in smaller towns.
Growth this year was driven less by higher bills and more by people buying more often. Order volumes rose 16.9 per cent year-on-year, while gross merchandise value grew 11.9 per cent, pointing to repeat consumption as the real engine.
FMCG and agriculture products recorded nearly 80 per cent growth, while beauty and wellness grew about 53 per cent. Shoppers stocked up on dry fruits, millet-based foods, healthy snacks and organic staples, alongside face serums, body washes and grooming essentials. The message is clear: e-commerce is now about routines, not rushes.
Speed continued to shape buying decisions. Quick commerce led growth with a 25 per cent jump in order volumes, followed by brand-owned websites at 23 per cent. Marketplaces still handled the largest share of orders, but brands leaned heavily on automation to manage inventory, route orders and respond to customers in real time.
Artificial intelligence quietly worked behind the scenes to turn interest into orders. Unicommerce’s Convertway platform powered over 2.5 million customer messages across SMS, WhatsApp and RCS, helping brands lift conversion rates during peak days.
Its AI voice agent, Catalyst, made more than 1.2 lakh calls to assist with last-mile order completion. The result was over ten times the revenue compared to the cost incurred, turning AI into one of the most efficient tools of the sale season.
Taken together, these four signals point to a shift in India’s e-commerce story. Growth in 2026 is being fuelled by repeat buying, sharper execution, deeper reach into smaller cities, faster fulfilment and smarter use of AI. The era of noisy spikes is giving way to something more durable and distinctly more mature.
MAM
Paramount set to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in $81 billion deal
Shareholders back merger, combined entity could reshape streaming and studios.
MUMBAI: Lights, camera… consolidation, Hollywood’s latest blockbuster might be happening off-screen. Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery have voted in favour of selling the company to Paramount in a deal valued at $81 billion rising to nearly $111 billion including debt setting the stage for one of the biggest shake-ups in modern media. The proposed merger, still subject to regulatory approvals, would bring together a vast portfolio spanning HBO Max, CNN, and franchises such as Harry Potter under the same umbrella as Paramount’s own heavyweights, including Top Gun and CBS.
At the heart of the deal is streaming scale. Executives have indicated plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single platform, potentially creating a stronger challenger to giants like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video. Current market data suggests HBO Max holds around 12 per cent of US on-demand subscriptions, compared to Paramount+’s 3 per cent, together still trailing Netflix’s 19 per cent and Disney’s combined 27 per cent via Disney+ and Hulu.
Paramount CEO David Ellison has signalled that while platforms may merge, HBO’s creative identity will remain intact, stating the brand should “stay HBO” even within a broader ecosystem.
Beyond streaming, the deal would redraw the map for film production. Combining two of Hollywood’s oldest studios Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., the new entity aims to scale output to over 30 films annually, while maintaining a 45-day theatrical window. Warner Bros. currently commands around 21 per cent of the US box office, compared to Paramount’s 6 per cent, underscoring the strategic weight of the acquisition.
But scale comes with scrutiny. Critics warn that fewer players could mean reduced consumer choice, rising subscription costs, and potential job cuts as the combined company looks to streamline overlapping operations while managing billions in debt.
The news business, too, faces a reset. CNN would join forces at least structurally with Paramount-owned CBS, raising questions about editorial independence and positioning. The merger has already drawn political attention in the United States, particularly given perceived ties between the Ellison family and Donald Trump, though the company maintains that newsroom autonomy will be preserved.
If approved, the deal would mark another milestone in Hollywood’s consolidation wave shrinking the industry’s traditional “big six” studios to a “big four”, with Paramount joining Disney, Universal, and Sony at the top table.
In an industry built on storytelling, this merger may well become its most consequential plot twist yet.
