Mumbai, Jan 24: Republic Day Sales 2026 offer a clear view into how India’s e-commerce market is maturing beyond discount-driven spikes towards structurally driven growth. An analysis by Unicommerce, based on over 27 million order items processed on its Uniware platform during the 2025 and 2026 Republic Day Sales periods, highlights four signals shaping the sector’s trajectory.
Tier 3 Cities Are Now Volume Leaders
Smaller cities emerged as key growth drivers. Tier 3 cities, led by Kolar (Karnataka), Rohtak (Haryana), Kamrup (Assam), Ernakulam (Kerala) and Khordha (Odisha) among others accounted for nearly 40% of total order items, with order volumes growing over 19% YoY. Healthy food volumes more than doubled in Tier 2 cities, while Tier 3 markets contributed around 43% of total food and beverage orders, underscoring the deepening reach of e-commerce beyond metros.
Repeat consumption driving growth
Order volumes grew 16.9% year-on-year, while GMV rose 11.9%, driven by higher order frequency rather than ticket size alone. FMCG & Agriculture and Beauty & Wellness were the fastest-growing categories, with nearly 80% and ~53% YoY growth respectively. Demand was led by healthy and everyday items such as dry fruits, millet-based products, packaged healthy snacks, and organic staples, and face serums, body washes along with other grooming products—reflecting a shift towards habit-driven, repeat consumption.
Speed and Automation Are Driving Conversions
Channel trends highlighted rising expectations for faster fulfillment. Quick commerce led growth with a ~25% YoY increase in order volumes, followed by brand-owned websites at 23%, while marketplaces continued to process the largest share of orders. Brands increasingly relied on automation to manage real-time inventory, routing, and customer engagement, reinforcing that execution quality is now as critical as pricing in driving sales performance.
AI-Led Engagement Is Closing the Conversion Gap
Brands leveraged AI and automation to convert high-intent demand during the Republic Day sale period this year. Insights from Unicommerce’s Convertway platform show over 2.5 million customer communications across SMS, WhatsApp, and RCS, driving improvement in conversion rates. AI Voice Agent ‘Catalyst’ further enabled last-mile order completion, with over 1.2 lakh calls made during the sales period—generating over ten times revenue for brands compared to the cost they incurred, making it a high-yield channel and highlighting the growing role of AI in shaping sale outcomes.
Together, these four signals point to an inflection in India’s e-commerce growth: repeat consumption driving growth, execution and technology-led expansion, smaller-city participation, faster fulfillment, and AI engagement emerging as the key growth levers in 2026.