The Amazon Great Indian Festival 2026 starts on 8 October. For a few weeks, India shops the way it only shops once a year: with a list, a budget and one eye on the clock.
Some products will sell out. Most will sell a little more than usual. The difference is rarely the size of the discount. It’s the work done in the days before the sale starts.
One date to note first. In past years, Prime members have had a head start of about a day. So plan to be ready on 7 October, not 8.
Here’s the work, in the order we’d do it.
Now: fix what shoppers see first
In a sale, people compare faster than ever. They scan a page of thumbnails, open two or three, and decide. Make sure yours survives that.
- The main image. Sharp, filling the frame, on a pure white background, showing only the product. Don’t add “Sale” or a discount to it: Amazon doesn’t allow text on main images, and a rejected image is worse than a plain one.
- The title. Lead with what the product is, then what makes it different. In a sale, the first few words do all the work.
- The bullet points. Answer the questions people ask before buying: will it fit, will it work, how long will it last.
- A+ content. Add a comparison chart, so a shopper who lands on one product can find the right one in your range without leaving the page.
If any of that needs work, it’s what our cataloguing and photography teams do every day.
Stock and deals: check before the doors open
Selling out on day three is a happy problem. Selling out on day one is a planning problem.
- Stock. Check every size, colour and variant, not just your bestseller. If you use Fulfilled by Amazon, Amazon sets a date by which stock has to reach its fulfilment centres before the sale. Find it in Seller Central and plan backwards from it.
- Deals. Lightning Deals and other event deals are booked in advance in Seller Central, and slots can close weeks before the sale. If you’ve missed them, coupons and promotions can usually still be set up closer to the date.
- Honest prices. Amazon checks deal prices against what you’ve charged recently. A price nudged up before the sale to make the discount look bigger can get the deal turned down.
The week before: get the ads ready
Everyone wants the same searches during the festival, so clicks cost more. The brands that do well are the ones that started early.
- Start a week ahead. Campaigns that are already running have data to learn from when the rush begins.
- Raise budgets for the sale days. A campaign that runs out of money by lunchtime on day one hands the evening to someone else.
- Back your best. Put the money behind products with good ratings and plenty of stock. Sale shoppers compare fast, and ads work hardest on products that already convert.
- Use every format. Sponsored Brands can send people to a festival page in your Brand Store. Sponsored Display can bring back people who looked but didn’t buy.
This is the part of the sale we run for brands on Amazon Ads.
Dress the store for the festival
Keep the sale off your main image and out of your A+ content, where Amazon doesn’t allow it. Your Brand Store is the place to celebrate.
- Add a festival page with your deals, your bestsellers and your gift ideas in one place. The store’s deals widget shows your live deals by itself.
- Get your sale creative ready early, in every size each placement needs, for phones and for desktop. Our ad creatives team makes these sets for every big sale.
During the sale: watch stock, not just sales
- Check stock every day. Pause ads on anything about to run out, and move the money to what’s selling.
- Answer questions and reviews quickly. In a sale, an unanswered question is often a lost order.
- Keep an eye on your deals. Make sure each one is live when it should be, at the price you set.
After the sale: keep what you learned
The festival ends, but festive shopping carries on until Diwali, on 8 November.
- Read the returns. They tell you what to fix: a size chart, a photo, one line in a bullet point.
- Keep bidding on the searches that sold, and drop the ones that only cost money.
- Bring back the browsers. People who looked during the sale and didn’t buy are still deciding.
Ten days is enough
Ten days is enough to fix what shoppers notice first: the image, the title, the stock and the ads. If you’d rather hand it over, tell us what you sell, and we’ll tell you what to fix first.
