Are consumers trading savings for luxury? How GST cuts are changing festive shopping

Amazon and Flipkart have launched their flagship festive sales amid sweeping goods and services tax (GST) cuts, setting the stage for what could be India’s biggest shopping season yet.

Amazon’s Great Indian Festival and Flipkart’s Big Billion Days (BBD) began on September 23, marking the start of the most crucial sales period of the year, which typically generates nearly a quarter of annual revenue for e-commerce platforms.

The launches came just a day after a new GST regime slashed rates on big-ticket items such as televisions, air-conditioners and dishwashers to 18% from 28%. Apparel and footwear priced up to ₹2,500 also saw tax rates cut to 5%.

Analysts say the GST rejig is fuelling a sharp rise in premium purchases, according to a report by The Economic Times.

“Consumers are upgrading with the price benefit,” ET quoted Satish NS, president of Haier India, as saying.

The appliances company has reported a 30% jump in online sales over the past two days.

“TVs of 55–65 inches and higher-rated ACs now account for 70% of sales, up from 50% last year.”

Haier India expects offline sales to mirror the trend from the weekend.

Super Plastronics, which sells Kodak, Thomson and Blaupunkt televisions, said price reductions of ₹4,000–6,000 on premium TVs, coupled with bank offers and exchange schemes, have spurred demand. Sales of 32-inch entry-level TVs have declined 10–12% year-on-year this Navratri season.

India’s auto sector, which saw sales slump 7.3% in August as consumers postponed purchases to await GST cuts, is also seeing similar trend for top-end models.

Dealers of Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and MG Motor said buyers are opting for higher variants as price gaps narrow.

At a south Mumbai dealership, bookings for Maruti’s Brezza ZXI rose sharply after its ex-showroom price fell by ₹86,100 to ₹10,39,900, compared with a ₹49,100 cut on the mid-level VXI variant, ET said.

Flipkart has added more than 100 fulfilment centres and nearly 400 micro-fulfilment hubs across 19 cities, hiring over 220,000 temporary workers, 20% of them women. Amazon has opened 12 new fulfilment centres and six sortation hubs while creating over 150,000 seasonal roles across 400 cities.

Datum Intelligence estimates festival season sales in 2025 could climb as much as 27% to ₹1.2 lakh crore, up from nearly ₹1 lakh crore last year and ₹81,000 crore in 2023.