The Indian festive season has undergone a significant transformation, evolving from a single event centered around Diwali to a five-month long celebration that spans from August to the New Year. This extended period is characterized by shopping, exploration, and joy, with global retail events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday gaining traction among Indian consumers and local businesses seeking to expand their reach internationally.
As this shift occurs, the methods by which people discover brands, interact with content, and shop have also changed. Consumers no longer restrict their hunt for deals to just one festival; instead, they capitalize on multiple opportunities throughout the extended festive period. This change is driven by several factors:
- A prolonged festive mindset that persists over several months.
- A growing desire for deals, product launches, and limited-time offers.
- The influence of global cultural events such as Halloween, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday.
- The rise of Quick Commerce, which has changed expectations around convenience and instant gratification.
At the same time, brands are actively seeking unique opportunities to connect with consumers in more meaningful and emotion-driven ways.
According to Arun Srinivas, Managing Director and Country Head for Meta in India, "Indian shoppers are entering the festive season with a keen eye for value, actively searching for the best deals, exclusive offers, and immersive shopping experiences. Global shopping events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday are rapidly altering shopping trends in India, transforming these occasions into major opportunities for brands to connect with customers both nationwide and internationally. To succeed in this expanded festive landscape, brands must adopt a strategic approach: targeting diverse audiences both in India and abroad and tailoring their outreach to distinct shopping behaviors. This is the key to unlocking significant business growth during the festive surge."
A Major Opportunity for Indian Brands to Reach Global Consumers
According to the Meta-commissioned Emerging Business Report by Alvarez & Marsal India (A&M India), Indian businesses are expanding internationally at a rapid pace. Approximately 52% of startups are exploring cross-border opportunities to tap into large global markets and meet the rising demand for Indian-origin products. The study also revealed that this expansion is leading to 25% higher margins for startups in key export markets due to cost and pricing advantages.
Another study commissioned by Meta and conducted by Kantar showed that nearly half of the surveyed shoppers made a cross-border purchase in the last six months, with more than a third of shoppers citing personalized ads on Meta platforms as a primary reason for their cross-border purchases.
Nitin Verma, Founder & CEO of InstaAstro, commented, "This Black Friday, we aim to provide personalized offers to our users, driven by data, and ensure a seamless journey across Meta ads and apps, especially WhatsApp. With Meta’s assistance, we can reach and identify high-intent users globally."
As these shifts reshape the festive landscape and make events like Black Friday more relevant than ever, Meta’s AI-powered solutions assist brands in navigating this complexity. They enable hyperlocal relevance in global markets, facilitate personalized discovery at scale, and help businesses turn high-intent moments into significant commercial outcomes.
“With the right strategy in terms of optimization for your funnel and creative testing, we understood that our clients could multiply their revenue during these three to four days of the Black Friday sale. Meta, as a platform, knows exactly where the shoppers are, what kind of shopping behavior they demonstrate, and what time of the day the ad needs to reach them. This makes Black Friday the best time to scale your brand and your business on Meta,” stated Vatsal Rajgor, Co-Founder of Digimaze & Strique AI.
An Emerging Shopping Moment for Indian Consumers
Meta’s 2025 Holiday Guide indicates that 58% of shoppers say Meta platforms are likely to influence their purchase decisions, making it the leading platform driving holiday purchases. Discovery is increasingly taking place on social media, and Meta is at the forefront of this trend: 79% of shoppers who discovered products on its platforms ultimately purchased them. Additionally, two in five holiday purchases are influenced by consumers engaging with AI-powered tools and assistants.
In this whirlwind of holiday shopping, two things matter most: winning hearts and boosting carts. Success lies at the intersection of emotion and commerce, where compelling stories, creator-led inspiration, and shoppable formats guide decisions. This is where Meta helps brands shine: blending AI-powered personalization, captivating creative content, and seamless shopping pathways to help businesses tap into the magic of the season and convert festive intent into outcomes.
As global festive culture continues to influence India’s expanded shopping season, the "Cyber 5" – the five-day shopping window including Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Sunday, and Cyber Monday – has become one of the biggest peaks for online and in-store retail worldwide. Indian shoppers are increasingly participating in this window as global festive culture blends with evolving domestic behavior.
Kausshal Dugarr, Founder and CEO of Teabox, mentioned, "In addition to A+SC for prospecting, we are also running remarketing campaigns for our customer list so that they are aware of the opportunities or discounts we are offering at this time."
Factors Driving the Change
The shift in shopping behavior is driven by several factors:
- A longer festive arc that keeps consumers in a celebratory mindset for several months.
- A growing appetite for discounts, deals, and value-driven purchases, extending beyond Diwali.
- Brands actively creating new moments of connection to engage shoppers throughout the season.
- Increasing global influence, with Halloween, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday becoming part of India’s festive vocabulary.
- International brands targeting Indian audiences with Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns, accelerating awareness and adoption.
To help brands connect meaningfully during Cyber 5 and the broader festive season, Meta offers a suite of solutions designed for performance, discovery, and cultural relevance:
- Meta Moment Maker: A short, burst video-buy package running across Reels, Stories, Feed, and In-Stream to maximize reach and frequency over a few days.
- Meta Storybuilder: A tool that helps quickly build vertical, mobile-first Story creatives from templates and existing assets for Facebook and Instagram.
- Meta Surround Sound: A planning approach ensuring a brand appears across multiple Meta surfaces to reinforce recall with the same audience.
- Click to WhatsApp Ads: Ads on Facebook and Instagram that open a WhatsApp chat instead of a website, used to drive conversations, leads, or sales in messaging.
- Collaborative Ads: An ad solution allowing a brand to run performance campaigns that click directly into a retailer or delivery partner’s catalog and website.
- Reminder Ads: An ad format enabling people to opt in for notifications about upcoming events, product launches, or sales directly from Meta surfaces.
- Advantage+: A suite of AI-driven automation products that optimize targeting, bidding, creatives, and placements (e.g., Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns).
- Partnership Ads: Ads run from a creator or partner’s handle using their content (with permissions) to combine influencer authenticity with Meta’s ad targeting.
As India embraces new festive moments and global shopping milestones, Meta remains committed to helping businesses of all sizes navigate this evolving landscape. With AI-powered tools, immersive formats, and performance-driven solutions, Meta enables brands to tap into emerging demand, reach high-intent shoppers across borders, and convert seasonal interest into measurable growth.
For more detailed insights, visit Meta’s official website.
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