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Amazon is witnessing a sharp rise in customer demand ahead of the festive shopping season, with orders already 35-40 per cent higher even before the full-scale launch of its Great Indian Festival. The e-commerce major has invested Rs 2,800 crore in infrastructure this year to prepare for the expected increase in festive orders.
The company expects the 2026 edition of its flagship festive sale to be its biggest ever, with strong demand emerging ahead of the main event, which opened for customers at midnight.
“We are seeing a 35 to 40 per cent spike in demand already. That is when we have not opened our sale fully. Once Amazon Great Indian Festival opens up tonight at 12 midnight, it is obviously going to go much higher,” Amazon India Vice President Saurabh Srivastava said, according to media reports.
To support the anticipated rise in orders, Amazon has expanded its fulfilment and delivery network ahead of the festive season, traditionally one of the busiest periods for online shopping.
“We have invested Rs 2,800 crore to expand the infrastructure this year,” Srivastava said.
The expansion includes 20 new fulfilment centres, 150 new delivery stations and six sort centres. Amazon has also increased its fulfilment-centre capacity by 50 per cent.
The company has further expanded Amazon Now, its rapid-delivery service, to 120 cities. Customers in eligible locations can access select products and deals, with deliveries possible within around 10 minutes.
Srivastava said the infrastructure expansion was aimed at ensuring customers across the country could receive products quickly despite the anticipated surge in festive orders.
Affordability is another key focus for Amazon during the festive event, with bank discounts, cashback, coupons, no-cost EMI, Amazon Pay Later and exchange offers being made available to customers.
“All of it put together, we are very confident that we are offering the best value of the year to our customers this festive season,” he said.
Amazon, however, declined to disclose a specific sales-growth or GMV target for the Great Indian Festival.
Srivastava said the company was not focused on setting a particular sales or profit number, but on acquiring customers, adding Prime members and improving customer satisfaction.
“Our number one, number two and number three goals are how happy and how delighted the customers are,” he said.
Amazon currently has around 22 lakh sellers on its marketplace, up by about three lakh from last year. The sellers are expected to offer a wider selection of products and competitive deals during the festive period.
The company is also seeing growth increasingly come from smaller cities rather than metros. Nearly 70 per cent of its new Prime customers are coming from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, according to Srivastava, with consumers in these markets also showing greater interest in premium products.
“Centre of gravity on growth has moved to Tier-2 and Tier-3,” he said.
Premiumisation is gaining momentum across categories including smartphones, smart appliances, beauty, apparel and home products. According to Srivastava, the trend is emerging in smaller cities at a pace comparable to metropolitan markets.
Amazon's infrastructure investments and capacity expansion are therefore aimed not only at handling the festive surge but also at supporting the company's expanding customer base beyond major urban centres.
Artificial intelligence is also playing a growing role in Amazon's festive operations, with the company using AI-powered tools to support both customers and sellers.
Its AI-powered shopping assistant Rufus helps customers discover and compare products while providing information on features and pricing.
For sellers, AI tools are being used to assess inventory requirements, determine where stocks should be positioned, size inventory and structure offers.
Srivastava said Amazon expects customers who have a strong festive shopping experience to continue making purchases throughout the year.
“Every year when we do this Amazon Great Indian Festival, we hit a new high watermark, and that becomes the base on which the next year’s growth happens,” he said.
While Amazon did not provide specific profit or GMV projections, Srivastava said the company was confident that this year's Great Indian Festival would be its biggest by a “large margin”.
