Quick Take
- Flipkart Minutes saw Raksha Bandhan orders grow threefold this year, with Gen Z as more than 40% of shoppers.
- Swiggy Instamart rakhi orders rose nearly 300% year-on-year, and Meesho orders grew 36% with GMV up 38%.
- Premium and personalised gifting drove the rush. Designer rakhis on Swiggy Instamart grew 130%.
Indians did their Raksha Bandhan shopping at the last minute this year, and they did it on their phones. Quick commerce platforms reported sharp jumps in rakhi and gifting orders in the days before the festival on August 9, 2026.
Flipkart Minutes saw festive shopping grow threefold from a year earlier. Gen Z buyers made up more than 40% of its shoppers, the platform said. That single number tells D2C brands where festive demand is now going.
The growth was not limited to metros. Flipkart Minutes recorded strong demand in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Kolkata, but also in smaller cities like Aurangabad, Madurai and Nawada. Smaller markets are buying festive gifts on 10-minute delivery too.
Which platforms won the Rakhi rush?
Every major quick commerce platform posted double-digit or triple-digit festive growth. Swiggy Instamart led on rakhi order growth. Rakhi orders there rose nearly 300% year-on-year, the company said.
At Swiggy Instamart, chocolates and mithai orders rose 30% against the week before Rakhi. Gift hampers were up 85% week-on-week. Smartwatches nearly doubled at 99%. Premium designer rakhis grew 130%.
Flipkart Minutes said its Rakhi Store sold more than 2,000 rakhis every minute during the rush. Rakhis and fashion maang tikkas were its fastest-growing categories, at 20 times and four times growth. Orders for men’s kurtas rose 87% year-on-year.
Amazon Now, the quick commerce arm of Amazon, said chocolate gifts were its fastest-growing category. Chocolate orders rose 2.5 times against a normal day. Kaju Katli saw two times growth. Its fastest rakhi order was delivered in under five minutes.
On Zepto, Delhi alone accounted for one in every 10 rakhis sold. Buyers there picked traditional Roli-Chawal and Rudraksha rakhis alongside silver-plated and multi-pack variants. Chocolates, beauty products and nut boxes were popular gifting choices.
On the e-commerce side, Meesho orders grew 36% year-on-year. Its gross merchandise value rose 38% during the festival. Nearly 73% of Meesho’s rakhi orders came from non-metro markets.
| Platform | Headline Rakhi growth | Standout detail |
|---|---|---|
| Flipkart Minutes | 3x overall festive orders | 2,000+ rakhis sold per minute |
| Swiggy Instamart | ~300% rakhi orders YoY | Designer rakhis up 130% |
| Amazon Now | 2.5x chocolate gifts | Fastest order in under 5 minutes |
| Zepto | 1 in 10 rakhis from Delhi | Traditional and premium mix |
| Meesho | 36% orders, 38% GMV | 73% orders from non-metro |
Why did D2C brands lean on quick commerce?
Quick commerce solves the one problem festive gifting creates: time. A buyer who forgets Rakhi until the morning cannot wait two days for delivery. Ten-minute delivery turns a missed festival into a saved one.
Shopping activity on Flipkart Minutes peaked between 4 pm and 10 pm. Mobile phones recorded the highest gifting orders within a single hour. This is impulse buying at festival scale, and it favours brands already stocked in dark stores.
The gifts themselves changed. Accessories like fashion brooches, mobile tripods and watch combos grew 3.5 times on Flipkart Minutes. Buyers searched for “Rakhi gift hamper for brother” and “Rudraksha Rakhi”. Personalised gifts are pulling ahead of standard ones.
D2C brands are treating this channel as a launchpad, not just a delivery pipe. Kids’ food brand Gladful put four premium gifting boxes on Zepto and Blinkit for the festive season. “We consciously introduce a few new products every year,” said Parul Sharma, founder of Gladful.
What does premium gifting mean for founders?
The clearest signal this Rakhi was premiumisation. Buyers moved from regular gifts to indulgent ones. “This year, we saw a clear shift towards premiumisation and personalisation in gifting,” said Nishant Sardana, director at Amazon Now.
Higher-value baskets reward brands with premium products ready to ship. On Swiggy Instamart, smartwatches nearly doubled and designer rakhis grew 130%. On Flipkart Minutes, mobile handsets and true wireless earbuds were top gifting picks.
Gifting brand FNP treats each channel differently. “Quick commerce then helps for something which is quick and urgent,” said a company representative. Its own platform carries the wider, personalised range. Quick commerce carries the urgent buy.
What should brands do before Diwali?
Rakhi is the first big test of the 2026 festive season, not the last. Diwali follows in October and brings larger baskets. The brands that learned dark-store placement this Rakhi hold an edge going in.
Stock depth matters most. A brand out of stock at 8 pm on festival eve loses the sale to whoever is in stock. Non-metro demand is real, so dark-store coverage beyond metros is now worth the cost.
StartupFeed Insight
The striking number is not the 300% growth. It is that Gen Z made up more than 40% of Flipkart Minutes shoppers. This is a generation that treats 10-minute delivery as the default, even for a festival their parents planned weeks ahead. For D2C founders, the lesson is placement over persuasion. The buyer is already in the app with intent. The only question is whether your product loads on that shelf. Expect Diwali 2026 to push premium gifting harder, with quick commerce taking a bigger share of hampers and electronics than any prior festive season. Brands that win dark-store depth outside metros before October will out-earn those that treat q-commerce as a metro-only channel.
— Avinash Mishra, Business Correspondent
What this means for you: If you sell giftable products, get premium SKUs into quick commerce dark stores beyond the metros before Diwali, because festive demand now peaks in the last few hours.
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