Three weeks in, festive season smartphone and appliance sales are at a three-year high

This is likely to make 2025 the best festive period for consumer electronics retailers since 2021, marking a 5-7% increase in sales by volume and more than 10% by net value over last year, they estimated.

Festive sales, which kick off from the last week of September, have an outsized impact on the electronics industry’s full-year sales. Smartphones, the single-largest revenue driver for India’s electronics industry, get nearly a fifth of their full-year sales from the festive period. Industry stakeholders said smartphones have seen 5-7% growth in sales this year, with demand set to rise further as the sales continue.

Kailash Lakhyani, president of electronics retailer industry body, All India Mobile Retailers Association (Aimra), said, “Most retailers are packed this year as consumers visit outlets to get a feel of the devices. The availability of financing options in stores even in tier-IV cities and beyond, coupled with brands making experience agents available in most stores, is boosting sales at retail outlets.

“Further, brands have matched the pricing of devices across online and mainstream (offline) retailers for most devices. This is creating an average rise of 5-6% in sales volume over last year for smartphones, and a double-digit rise in the value of all smartphones sold in the first phase of this festive season.”

Smartphones sales rise

A consensus of three technology market research firms polled by Mint suggested that India may see smartphone sales rise 3% through the year to about 155 million units. The first phase of the festive season sales began on 22 September, with online retailers Amazon and Flipkart commencing sales. The first phase of these ran through 11 October. During this time, about 35 million smartphones were sold in India, up nearly 6%. With average selling prices increasing, India’s smartphone industry in India generated nearly $10 billion of revenue this year, up nearly 10%.

Tarun Pathak, cofounder and director at tech research firm Counterpoint, said, “There are clear signs of 2025 being the festive period for consumer electronics, at least compared with the past three cycles. Smartphone volumes were up nearly 8% this year, and a clear premiumisation drive led to the net value of phones sold in the early stretch of festive sales to rise by 12%. This has been clearly driven by premium smartphone sales, such as the one-year-old flagship phones by Samsung being sold at hefty discounts.”

Upasana Joshi, lead – smartphones, wearables, smart home and IoT at research firm International Data Corp (IDC) India, estimated single-digit growth in festive season smartphone sales. “Overall, sales are likely to start tapering off right after Diwali, and the final quarter of this calendar year may see a decline in sales. All of this will keep the market stagnant for the full year,” she said.

As a result, Joshi said, the smartphone market is likely to see sales of 46 million units during the September quarter—marginal growth from a year earlier—but register a decline in sales in the final three months of the year, making 2025 a flat year in terms of overall smartphones sales—and still below the 161 million units sold in 2021.

TVs, home appliances

However, demand is surging in other categories such as televisions and home appliances. “The benefits of GST rationalisation in these categories has led to a clear surge in demand, and a clear double-digit boost is playing out in electronics, washing machines and even air conditioners,” Joshi said.

While Mint could not determine a shipment figure, a consensus of three retailers said that televisions and home appliances both grew over 10% year-on-year in sales volume, largely fuelled by festive season sales.

Meanwhile, the festive sales fervour is likely to continue over the next three weeks at least. “This is the period when we will see sales surge in brick-and-mortar stores. As more people visit stores and purchase devices after evaluating them, sales are likely to surge for laptops as well—which have not yet picked up,” Counterpoint’s Pathak said.

Some retailers, however, continue to face dull demand. Manish Khatri, a partner at Mumbai electronics retailer Mahesh Telecom, said demand remained erratic. “People are mostly showing interest in products that are available exclusively online at discounted prices and not easily available offline. The organic demand is still limited. While demand for premium phones is there, availability is an issue. Demand for financing schemes is also high, but many are now being rejected due to poor credit scores,” he added.