Zepto’s Rakhi sales soar, Instamart and Flipkart Minutes also see festive boom
Quick-commerce firms raced to meet Rakhi demand, boosting inventories, rolling out festive product lines, and fine-tuning deliveries to handle the order surge.
Quick commerce platform Zepto set a new record for Rakhi sales this year, selling over 820 rakhis a minute at peak hour, more than double last year’s high, according to Co-founder and CEO Aadit Palicha.
“Traditionally, Rakhi shopping meant going store-to-store a week in advance to find ‘the one.’ Today, the rush peaks at 10–11 AM on the day itself. This year, at that peak hour, we sold over 820 rakhis a minute—more than double last year’s record. Our 500+ handcrafted designs didn’t just make it to carts… they made it to hearts,” Palicha said in a statement.
Chief Business Officer Devendra Meel added, “We also saw a ~30% rise in average order value and a ~150% surge in volumes compared to the same time last year. By optimising dark store inventory, integrating gifting SKUs into the app journey, and offering festive-ready packaging, we made Rakhi 2025 not just more joyful, but easier and more memorable for millions of users.”
In a LinkedIn post, Meel highlighted strong growth across popular gifting categories on Zepto during Rakhi, with earrings seeing a 4.5x increase in sales, wallets and handbags surging 7x, Indian sweets growing 4x, and envelopes doubling in demand.
YourStory had earlier reported on the intense festive sprint by quick-commerce companies in the run-up to Rakhi, with platforms ramping up their inventories, expanding festive-specific product lines, and optimising delivery operations to cater to the surge in orders.
This includes Instamart, which saw a demand spike days ahead of the festival, not just in the final stretch.
“We have already surpassed last year’s sales, with a 3.5x surge in orders compared to the same period in 2024,” Manender Kaushik, AVP and Category Head at Instamart, said earlier. He added that Rakhi hampers on Instamart are up 8x year-on-year, while sweets and chocolates are up 8x and 4x, respectively.
Separately, Flipkart Minutes reportedly recorded a rise in demand for gift packs and hampers, with chocolate and festive gift box orders increasing fivefold. Sweets saw a twelvefold jump, while dry fruit sales were up threefold.
Edited by Megha Reddy