Ecommerce order volumes up 19% during mid-year sales, driven by demand in Tier II cities

Ecommerce platforms Amazon and Flipkart, as well as D2C brands, witnessed a marked increase in order volumes during multiple sales held last week.

The sale period from July 11 to 14 saw a 19% year-on-year increase in ecommerce order volumes compared to the same period last year, according to trends shared by Unicommerce.

Amazon extended its flagship Prime Day sale by one extra day from July 12 to July 14, while Flipkart ran its GOAT (Greatest of All Time) Sale from July 12 to July 17.

While Amazon did not share a specific growth number, the platform said "more members shopped more than any previous Prime Day event in India."

Logistics and supply chain tech platform Unicommerce attributed strong growth during the mid-year sale to rising consumer demand from non-metro regions. Tier II cities grew over 21% while Tier III cities posted 22% growth over the last year. On the other hand, metro cities posted a 15% increase in order volumes as compared with the corresponding week last year.

Amazon reported that over 70% of its sign-ups for Prime memberships ahead of the Prime Day sale were from Tier II and IIII cities.

Flipkart noted a similar trend, with a spokesperson saying that while metro cities continued to drive demand, there was strong engagement from emerging markets, where customers were actively exploring newer formats like live commerce and limited-time drops.

D2C brands like Nasher Miles also reported growing traction from Tier II cities. The luggage brand said it clocked over 65% growth from the sale period last year, with Mumbai, Delhi, NCR, Bengaluru and Hyderabad leading in city sales, according to Lokesh Daga, Co-founder and Director, Nasher Miles.

The luggage segment also clocked 2X growth during Amazon Prime Day, particularly helped by brands like  Uppercase, Nasher Miles, Assembly, EUME, and Urban Jungle.

The strong growth in mid-year sales also prompted the brand to raise expectations for the upcoming festive season. The brand now expects over 50% growth from the previous festive season, which usually starts from after August.

"Extremely positive and bullish about the upcoming festival season. We have a series of exciting and exclusive new colorful launches planned across all our channels," Daga told YourStory.

Offline retail sales also witnessed a surge, particularly helped by apparel, sports goods and consumer electronics. Omnichannel retailers are looking at non-discretionary spending to offer a hopeful outlook for consumption market.

"Retail sales grew by 7% in May and 8% in June, following nearly a year of 4–5% year-on-year growth. The festive season begins at the end of August, which may influence how demand evolves. Retailers have a sharp focus on the way consumers are buying non-discretionary goods. Non-discretionary spending creates hope for the consumption market,” said Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO of Retailers Association of India,

Wearables brand Leaf Studios also said it expects 2X growth as compared to business-as-usual (BAU) numbers during the upcoming Flipkart Big Billion Days and Amazon Great Indian Festival sale.

Leaf Studios recorded a 3x year-on-year surge in sales during Prime Day 2025. “In these four days, we did more than what we did in the last 30 days before Prime Day,” said Paras Batra, Founder of Leaf Studios.

Overall, electronics & home appliances recorded a growth of over 29%, according to Unicommerce.

Amazon, which counts consumer and personal electronics as a fairly large category, witnessed double digit growth in value in smartphones with average selling price growing across all tiers, suggesting consumer preferences for upgrading to latest technologies.

“Another reason Prime Day did so well for us was because we went aggressive in discounting, and the market leaders didn’t. They probably thought they’d only see lift on the premium side. We went in on entry-level too,” Batra told YourStory.

Premiumization in consumer electronics also trickled down to smaller towns .

Tier-2 and tier-3 cities saw an increased traction for double-door refrigerators, fully automatic washing machines and higher screen size televisions, shared Rakesh Krishnan, Vice President, Large Appliances.

Premium audio products also saw strong double-digit growth and increased adoption in Tier 2 cities during Prime Day Sale.

Besides marketplace, D2C channels also remained in focus, helped by combos, offers and focus on personalized offerings.

"Our own website [leafstudios.in] contributes to the majority of the company's revenue, so we used to see a drop in previous years on our website during prime day but this year we had almost no impact on that. So almost all revenue was incremental for us," shared Paras.

According to ecommerce logistics intelligence platform ClickPost, projected double-digit growth in categories like Fashion. petcare, cosmetics and nutrition and pharma.

Growing consumer expectations for faster deliveries has also prompted ecommerce platforms to reinforce their logistics operation before high-frequency events.

"Thanks to our recent investment of INR 2000 crores in the well-being of our associates and the scaling up our operations, we were able to deliver even faster and safer this year," said Akshay Sahi, Head of Amazon Prime, Delivery and Returns Experiences, India and Emerging Markets.

Amazon delivered tens of thousands of products as early as within four hours in Tier I cities. Same-day and next-day deliveries doubled in metro cities while within 2-day deliveries grew by 1.8X in Tier II and III cities.



Kalyan Krishnamurthy-led Flipkart also banked on its quick commerce operations, Flipkart Minutes to fulfill orders for customers prioritising speed.

(The story was updated to clarify's RAI representation for omnichannel retailer.)