Retailers who prepare ahead for festive season likely to benefit: Fynd report

AI-native retail technology company Fynd, backed by Reliance Retail Ventures, has released its Festive Readiness Report 2026, urging fashion, lifestyle, and retail brands to start planning early for India's biggest shopping season as consumer behaviour continues to shift.

Based on marketplace intelligence data collected between March 2025 and June 2026 across Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, AJIO, Nykaa, and JioMart, the report says festive success will increasingly depend on early planning, real-time inventory visibility and faster fulfilment rather than deep discounts.

"The brands that prepare the earliest and execute the fastest will emerge as winners during Festive 2026," said Ragini Varma, Chief Business Officer-India at Fynd. She noted that Tier III cities have become key growth markets, while store-led fulfillment is playing an increasingly important role in improving delivery speed and protecting margins. Brands need a unified, real-time operating layer across inventory, marketplaces, fulfilment, pricing and checkout to convert festive readiness into measurable growth, she added.

The report identifies six major trends shaping the upcoming festive season. Real-time inventory visibility is emerging as a competitive advantage, while Tier III cities accounted for 46% of festive demand in 2025, surpassing Tier I cities at 35% and Tier II markets at 19%. Faster deliveries are also becoming critical, with 77% of returns linked to orders delivered after three days.

Marketplace concentration is increasing, with Myntra, JioMart, and Flipkart together contributing nearly 80% of festive demand, led by Myntra at 49%.

Meanwhile, store-led fulfillment grew from 29% of orders in 2024 to 51% in 2025, overtaking warehouse fulfillment. Prepaid transactions also crossed 53% of total payments, while cash-on-delivery accounted for 73% of returns-to-origin, underscoring the need for UPI-first checkout strategies.

The report also found that festive demand in 2025 peaked eight days before Diwali, while pre-Navratri direct-to-consumer orders rose 16% year-on-year. Average discounts narrowed from 44% in 2024 to 34% in 2025, suggesting shoppers continued to spend despite lower markdowns. More than half of festive sales came from products priced below ₹2,000, reinforcing the importance of value-led pricing over blanket discounting.