- India's Diwali shopping saw growth in gold coins, diyas, festive fashion, and curated hampers
- Swiggy reported a 10.7% rise in food delivery orders during the Diwali period compared to last year
- Zepto saw 3X growth in hamper orders and doubled fashion purchases, led by ethnic wear and accessories
India's Diwali shopping basket is getting bigger, more diverse and increasingly unconventional. Consumers ordered gold coins, bought lakhs of diyas, stocked up on festive fashion, sent curated hampers and increasingly stepped out for restaurant meals as digital commerce platforms continue to capture a growing share of festive spending.
Data shared by Swiggy, Instamart and Zepto for the November 6-8 festive period points to a broad-based surge in consumption, spanning food delivery, gifting, home décor, beauty and high-value purchases.
On Swiggy, food delivery orders grew 10.7% during the Diwali festivities compared with the corresponding festive period last year. The platform processed an average of 97,545 food orders every hour, with Masala Dosa, Kaju Katli and Paneer Butter Masala among the most ordered dishes.
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Kaju Katli emerged as a common favourite across platforms. It topped Instamart's mithai charts and was also Swiggy's most ordered sweet, followed by Motichoor Ladoo, Rasgulla and Gulab Jamun.
Zepto, meanwhile, saw Laddu emerge as its most frequently ordered mithai, while Soan Papdi led in terms of total quantity sold. The numbers underline the continued importance of traditional food categories even as consumers diversify their festive shopping baskets.
Beyond groceries
The shift is particularly visible in non-food categories. Zepto recorded 3X growth in festive hamper orders compared with last Diwali, while purchases of fashion doubled, led by ethnic wear and accessories.
Orders for flowers and garlands grew 2.5X, while the platform recorded 4.68 lakh diya orders during the festive period. Beauty product orders also touched their highest demand on Diwali, the data showed.
Instamart's data reflects a similar expansion in shopping preferences. Demand for assorted dry-fruit gift packs more than doubled, while dinner sets emerged as the platform's most popular gifting item.
Diet Coke was the most popular non-grocery item on Diwali eve, while party-planning orders surged 162% year-on-year and munchies and snack orders rose 42%.
The high-value end of festive shopping was equally notable. Instamart's biggest Diwali basket came from Mumbai, with a purchase worth ₹1.11 lakh, comprising gold coins featuring Lakshmi-Ganesh and lotus designs.
The first gold coin order on the platform was placed at 12:00:30 a.m. on November 6 from Hyderabad. Nearly two-thirds of the gold coins purchased featured floral or rose designs, while Lakshmi-Ganesh designs accounted for 73% of silver coin demand.
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Dine-out spending
The festive consumption trend extended beyond home deliveries.
Swiggy's Dineout platform recorded a 38.5% increase in restaurant reservations on Diwali compared with the previous year. Reservations on Diwali eve were up 7.4%.
A Mumbai dining bill of ₹1.34 lakh was among the largest recorded during the period, while group bookings for 30 people each were recorded in Surat and Ahmedabad.
The trend suggests that festive spending is not limited to household consumption, with restaurant dining and group celebrations also contributing to the overall demand.
Swiggy also recorded some large festive food orders, including a Hyderabad order worth ₹41,895 for 57 packets of assorted sweets and a Mumbai order worth Rs 41,772 for seven curated sweet hampers.
Taken together, the numbers from the three platforms show how India's festive consumption basket is expanding across categories and occasions. For digital commerce platforms, the opportunity is increasingly to capture a larger share of this festive wallet — not just through routine grocery purchases, but across the many needs associated with celebrations.
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