GST cut fills ecom cart

Platforms expand infrastructure in smaller cities as GST reforms and instant delivery reshape the retail landscape

- PEERZADA ABRAR

Ziro, aremote valley-town in Arunachal Pradesh known for its annual rock festival, is not easy to get to.

The nearest railway station, Naharlagun, is 100 km away. From there, it takes hours to reach the town through winding mountain roads, often blocked by rain-trig-gered landslides.

So it was asurprise when aFlipkart delivery partner promptly transported large premium appliances toa customer's doorstep in Ziro during the company’s recent The Big Billion Days (TBBD) sale. The seamless delivery to the isolated region shows how ecom-merce firms are leveraging massive infrastructure investments and favourable tax policies to reach previously untapped markets.

This transformation extends far beyond deliveries. India’s 2025 festival shopping season marks a structural shift as Amazon and Flipkart harness GST 2.0 reforms — which cut appliance taxes by 10 percentage points — and deploy instant commerce capabilities to capture premium demand in Tier-II and -IlI cities. The platforms have expanded warehousing capacity by millions of cubic feet, while premium electronics sales have doubled in smaller markets, signallinga permanent transformation that could reshape consumer behav-iour and supply-chain economics for years to come.

“Appliances this year are the fastest-growing category for us. People were waiting for the GST changes to kick in,” Pratik Shetty, vice president, growth and marketing, Flipkart, told Business Standard. “This is probably the best we've had in the last three or four years.”

Flipkart recorded a 21 per cent increase in user visits during the opening days of TBBD 2025, which started on September 22 midnight and ends this week. The Walmart-owned platform saw a 26 per cent year-on-year (Yo-Y) growth in premium product purchases across mobiles, televisions, and refrigerators. Cities beyond major metros, including Indore, Surat, and Varanasi, showed substantial growth in participation.