India, Sept. 1 -- Festive shopping has always involved some last-minute panic. A forgotten gift, an extra box of sweets or a beauty order placed days before Diwali can still be rescued by ecommerce, but only if the parcel arrives before the occasion.

In 2026, considerably more infrastructure is competing to make that happen. On January 13, India Post booked its first ONDC order as a logistics service provider, allowing sellers to request pickups and use its postal network for deliveries. ONDC now has 70+ logistics providers and 50,000 riders serving more than 150 cities.

Then, on July 28, Flipkart widened access to Ekart's logistics network for D2C brands and other external businesses. Ekart launched the expansion with more than 300 fra...