Smartphone Sales: While bumper shopping is expected everywhere during the festive season, the smartphone market is seeing disappointment this time around. People are visiting online sites but not buying phones. According to the latest report by market tracker Counterpoint Research, e-commerce companies saw a 16 percent drop in smartphone sales during the Navratri sale. This is considered to be the biggest decline in recent years.

Shubham Singh, research analyst at Counterpoint, says consumers are interested in buying phones, but budget is becoming the biggest hurdle in their way. 60-65% of the e-commerce platform’s total festive business takes place during this period. But this time the start has been very poor. Smartphones account for up to 35% of Amazon, Flipkart to JioMart’s festive business. The e-commerce platform also had high expectations from the phone’s sales this time around.

The lower the discount, the higher the price

Earlier, customers were getting a huge discount of 25 to 40 percent in the festive sale. But this time this discount has reduced to only 10 to 25 percent. In fact, phone manufacturing companies are under huge cost pressure. The price of memory chips has increased two to three times. Apart from this, due to falling value of rupee, the cost of freight has also increased. Due to this reason, smartphone prices have increased by an average of 35 to 40 percent. Companies have reduced discounts to offset these increased costs.

The offline market is also in bad condition

Not only online, there is silence in the shops too. According to the All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA), phone sales at shops have dropped by 20 percent since the start of Navratri. The organization estimates that total retail sales during the holiday season could drop by more than 15 percent compared to last year.

AIMRA founder chairman Kailash Lakhyani says even mobile manufacturing companies have admitted that online sales have been a complete flop show this time. Due to inflation, there was an alarming drop of 40 to 50 percent in the number of customers visiting shops in September. For this reason, brands are now extending sale dates to clear their accumulated stock.

People working with old phones

Today, 70 to 80 percent of phones in the retail market are sold on installment (consumer financing). But due to rising prices, consumers are now reluctant to buy new phones. Due to deteriorating budgets, people are now either getting their old phones repaired or buying second hand phones. Which has a direct impact on the total sales of mobiles.

Demand for premium phones continues

Amidst this severe recession, Rs. Demand for premium smartphones priced above 45,000 remains high. In the first eight months of 2026, overall smartphone sales fell by 10 percent, but in terms of earnings (value) increased by 4 percent. This happened because the average price (ASP) of the phone has gone up.

Retailers say that the average price of phones from big companies like Apple, Samsung, Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi has now come down to between Rs 35,000 to Rs 37,000. Despite selling fewer phones than this, the company’s earnings are balanced. Experts believe that there may be some improvement in sales by Diwali, but overall decline in sales is certain. At the same time, another bad news for the mobile market is that after Diwali the prices of the phones may go up again.