India’s festive season e-commerce boom is increasingly driven by credit cards, boosted by extra discounts on card payments across apps such as Flipkart and Amazon. During Navratri 2025, credit-based transactions surged even as debit-card payments fell for a third straight year and UPI growth slowed.
A Moneycontrol analysis of transaction data shows that while UPI still dominates in volume terms, credit card spending on online platforms grew nearly six times faster than debit card usage, signalling a deeper behavioural shift toward credit-driven consumption.
Credit Cards See Biggest Jump
Credit card payments on e-commerce platforms jumped 26.8 percent in volume and 34.8 percent in value compared with the previous year. Daily credit-card spending touched Rs 5,286 crore per day, up from Rs 3,922 crore in 2024.
In contrast, debit-card transactions dropped 22.6 percent in volume, extending a multi-year slide. Even so, the 8.3 percent rise in value suggests that higher-income users continue to rely on debit cards for larger purchases.
UPI volumes grew 20.1 percent year-on-year during the period — strong but well below the 50-plus percent growth rates recorded in the previous two festive seasons.
Post-GST Boost
Festive season spending would have likely spiked sharply after the September GST rate rationalisation, which moved nearly 90 percent of products from the 12 and 28 percent slabs to lower rates.
Credit-card volumes surged 38.5 percent compared with the 15 days leading up to Navratri, while the total value of transactions soared 70.9 percent — the steepest jump since 2022.
UPI volumes were largely flat (-0.3 percent) during the same period, though total value rose 7 percent, indicating stable user activity but higher average ticket sizes. Debit-card transactions briefly rose 15.8 percent, yet their share of total online payments remains marginal.
The festive season appears to have cemented a new normal in how India shops online.
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