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FESTIVE SALE FRENZY: HOW DOPAMINE, FOMO AND DIGITAL DESIGN FUEL YOUR CLICKS
Mint Chennai
|October 17, 2025
The festival that lights up India’s bazaars now lights up its browsers. Each October, e-commerce platforms turn the season into a shopping carnival, with Flipkart’s ‘Big Billion Days’ and Amazon’s ‘Great Indian Festival’ now as much a part of Diwali as sweets and lights.
Last year, Amazon logged 1.1 billion visits, Flipkart 1.4 billion; Market Xcel expects this year’s sales to top $12 billion, up 23% from 2024. Behind these numbers lies a quiet tension between excitement and restraint—the thrill of a deal versus the small voice asking, “Do I really need this?”
The science of the sale
The thrill of snagging a deal is real—it’s dopamine at work. Each rewarding purchase triggers the brain’s pleasure chemical, driving anticipation, says psychologist Nishtha Jain. Retailers design apps to exploit this: flash sales, countdowns, and spin-the-wheel coupons deliver unpredictable rewards, while urgency and exclusivity push shoppers to chase not the product, but the feeling of winning.
Culture and celebration
This story is from the October 17, 2025 edition of Mint Chennai.
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