Indian festival sales calendar 2027: a month-by-month plan

Indian online sellers can plan the whole of 2027 around a handful of big moments: Sankranti and Pongal in January, Holi and Eid around March, the regional new years in April, Raksha Bandhan in August, Onam and Ganesh Chaturthi around September, and the long Navratri, Durga Puja, Dussehra and Diwali season from late September into November. Add the wedding seasons, school reopening and year-end gifting, and you have a calendar that tells you when to stock, shoot, promote and ship.

A note on dates: most Indian festivals follow lunar or regional calendars, and Islamic festivals depend on the sighting of the moon, so exact dates vary by region and are confirmed close to the time. The months below are a planning guide. Before you fix a campaign, check the date in a reliable panchang or your state's official holiday list for 2027.

How far ahead should I start for each festival?

Work backwards from the festival date:

• 6 to 8 weeks before: decide products and offers, order stock.
• 4 weeks before: photograph, write listings, set up coupons and collections.
• 3 weeks before: start telling customers by email, WhatsApp and Instagram.
• 10 to 14 days before: peak buying window for shipped orders.
• Last order date: the final day you can still deliver in time. Announce it.

For orders going abroad, such as Rakhi for siblings overseas, start a few weeks earlier still. Our festive sale planning guide covers offers, stock and deadlines in detail.

What happens in each month of 2027?

Which regional festivals should I not miss?

If your customers are concentrated in a region, its festivals may matter more than national ones:

• Tamil Nadu: Pongal, Puthandu, Aadi offers, Deepavali, Karthigai Deepam.
• Kerala: Vishu and Onam, both big for clothing, gold and home goods.
• Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana: Ugadi, Sankranti, Varalakshmi Vratham, Bathukamma and Dasara.
• Maharashtra: Gudi Padwa, Ganeshotsav, Diwali.
• Gujarat and Rajasthan: Uttarayan kite flying, Navratri garba, Diwali and the Gujarati New Year.
• West Bengal, Odisha, Assam: Poila Boishakh, Rath Yatra, Durga Puja, Bihu.
• Punjab and the north: Lohri, Baisakhi, Karwa Chauth, Diwali.
• Bihar and eastern UP: Chhath Puja.

Selling to customers in their own language around these festivals helps. UpMinutes storefronts work in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada; see our guide to multilingual stores.

When are the 2027 wedding seasons?

Wedding dates follow auspicious muhurats, which vary between calendars and communities. Broadly, many weddings fall between November and February, with another season around April to June, and fewer during the monsoon months and certain inauspicious periods. Wedding buyers shop weeks or months ahead for clothing and jewellery, so promote early. Our guide to wedding season selling has more.

What about global dates for customers abroad?

If you sell to NRIs or overseas buyers, add Black Friday (26 November 2027), Christmas, Mother's Day and Father's Day in the countries you ship to (some, like the UK, have different dates). Allow for international delivery times, which are longer than domestic. UpMinutes can show visitors abroad guide prices in up to 12 currencies, with orders charged in rupees.

Which offers work best for festivals?

• Free gift above a cart value during Diwali and Eid gifting.
• Buy X get Y for diyas, rakhis and return gifts.
• Bundles, such as a saree with a matching blouse and bangles.
• Free delivery above an amount, which raises order value.
• Gift cards for late shoppers after your delivery cut-off.
• Countdowns on offers ending within a week, to create honest urgency.

UpMinutes includes coupons, automatic offers, bundles, gift cards and offer countdowns. For wording and limits, read coupons and offers that work.

What should I do in the quiet months?

Every business has slower weeks, often in the monsoon and just after the big festive rush. Use them rather than discounting harder:

• Refresh photos and descriptions for your top 20 products, so they are ready before the next season.
• Clear old stock with an honest end-of-season sale; our guide to clearance sales explains how to do it without training customers to wait for discounts.
• Ask past customers for reviews, which will help festive shoppers trust you later.
• Grow your email list with a sign-up offer, so you have people to tell when the festive range goes live.
• Test your checkout, delivery zones and COD limits while orders are low.
• Batch content: shoot Reels and write emails for the next two festivals in one go.

A store that uses July and August well usually has a calmer, more profitable October.

Your 2027 planning checklist

• Mark the five festivals that matter most to your customers.
• Confirm each date in a reliable 2027 calendar.
• Write the "stock order by" and "last order" dates for each.
• Plan one email and three social posts per festival.
• Set up offers in advance with start and expiry dates.
• Check courier cut-offs, especially before Diwali.
• Use holiday mode if you close for your own festival, so the store stays visible with a message.

More ideas for growing sales through the year are in marketing and growth.

Filed under Marketing & growth. More guides on the UpMinutes blog.