Diwali sale ideas for a small business — 7 offers that don’t eat your profit

TL;DR

• • Know your number: profit per order at full price, after making, packing, delivery and the payment fee.
• • Cheapest offers to run: a small free gift above a cart value, and free delivery above a value.
• • Buy 2 Get 1 is a 33% discount. Only run it where your cost is well under half the price.
• • Time your codes: an early-bird code spreads orders out; a Dhanteras code gives a one-day reason to buy.
• • On SitesPlaced, coupons, sale prices, the free-shipping bar and the hamper page are free. Buy X Get Y is on Growth (₹499/month).

First, know your profit per order

Here is a worked example with round numbers. Use your own, but keep the shape. Say you sell a festive candle set for ₹1,000. It costs you ₹450 to make, ₹50 to pack, and ₹80 to deliver (you pay the courier). Your payment gateway takes a small fee on each online payment; in this example we use 2%, which is ₹20. Check your own gateway’s rate.

So one order at full price earns you ₹400. Now watch what a discount does. The making, packing and delivery cost the same. Only the price and the small fee go down.

Worked example: ₹450 cost, ₹50 packing, ₹80 delivery, a 2% payment fee. Your numbers will differ.

A 10% discount needs about a third more orders just to stand still. A 20% discount needs double. Plug in your own costs with the free profit margin calculator, and use the discount calculator to see what an offer really costs, including Buy X Get Y. If your prices were too thin to begin with, fix that first: see how to price your products.

1. Flat off, with a cap

The simplest offer: 10% off, or ₹100 off. Buyers understand it at once. The risk is in the table above, so keep it small and put limits on it. A “10% off, up to ₹150, on orders above ₹999” code can’t be used to take a large bite out of a big order, and it nudges small orders up.

On SitesPlaced: for a few products, set a sale price with the original price shown struck through. For a store-wide offer, add a coupon under Settings → Discounts → Coupon codes: percent or fixed amount, the whole cart or one category, and under More rules a minimum order, a maximum discount and an expiry date. The sale items rule stops a code stacking on top of an item that is already on sale. All of it is free.

2. A free gift above a cart value

“Free pair of painted diyas with every order above ₹1,499.” Worked example: if the diyas cost you ₹60, the offer costs you 4% of a ₹1,500 order. A 10% discount on the same order would cost ₹150. The gift also feels like more to the buyer than ₹60 off, because it is something they can hold, and it gets people to add the extra item to reach the value.

On SitesPlaced: there is no automatic free-gift button, and you don’t need one. Put the line in your announcement bar (Settings → Branding, free), say it on your product pages, and add the gift when you pack any order above the value; the order total is right there in your Orders tab. If you are on Growth, you can also turn it into a Buy X Get Y offer where the free item comes from a different category, such as “buy any 2 candle sets, get a diya pair free”. The shopper adds the diya pair to the cart and it comes off at checkout.

3. Buy X Get Y, on the right products

Buy 2 Get 1 free is a 33% discount spread over three items. Here is why it can still work. Same candle set: the buyer takes three and pays ₹2,000. Your costs are ₹1,350 for three sets, about ₹70 to pack one bigger parcel, about ₹100 to deliver it, and a ₹40 fee. You earn ₹440, a little more than one full-price order, because three items share one parcel and one delivery.

Now change one number. If each set cost you ₹650 to make, the same order costs you ₹2,160 and you lose ₹160. So run Buy X Get Y only on items that cost you well under half their price: diyas, candles, cards, small décor.

On SitesPlaced: Settings → Discounts → Offers. It applies at checkout without a code, can be limited to one category, and is priced on the server so nobody can tamper with it. It is part of the sales boosters on the Growth plan (₹499/month). For higher-priced items, a milder offer such as “₹150 off orders above ₹2,500” works better, and that is a free coupon with a minimum order.

4. Bundles and gift sets

A bundle turns a buyer who came for one thing into a buyer of three. Worked example: three items that sell for ₹400, ₹350 and ₹300 (₹1,050 together) become a “Diwali trio” at ₹949. That is ₹101 off, about 10%, but it is one order, one box and one delivery, and many gift buyers would rather not choose.

On SitesPlaced: list the set as its own product with its own photo and stock count (free). Or switch on the build-your-own-hamper page (Settings → Sales boosters, free) with a price list such as “any 4 for ₹999”. On Growth, “frequently bought together” suggestions show matching items on each product page. The full hamper playbook is in how to sell Diwali gift hampers online.

5. An early-bird code

“EARLY10: 10% off, until 15 October.” It rewards people who were going to buy anyway for buying sooner, and that helps you: orders spread across October instead of piling into the last week, when couriers are busiest and you are packing late into the night.

On SitesPlaced: a coupon with an expiry date (free). A date on its own stays valid until the end of that day. Say the end date in your announcement bar and your posts, and keep the promise: when it ends, it ends.

6. A Dhanteras-day code

Dhanteras, on Friday 6 November 2026, is a traditional day for buying, especially metal: jewellery, coins and utensils. A one-day code fits it. One catch: an order placed on Dhanteras will usually arrive after Diwali unless you deliver locally. So aim the offer at things that are still welcome after the festival, such as jewellery and home décor, or at buyers in your own city, and say the delivery date plainly. Jewellery sellers, see Dhanteras sale ideas for a jewellery store.

On SitesPlaced: add the coupon ahead of time with 6 November as its expiry date, and tick it Active on the morning of Dhanteras. Tick Show this code on the store so shoppers see it on product pages and in the cart (on the brand-style templates and the General Store). On the AI Co-founder plan (₹1,499/month), a scheduled promotion can switch the code and a matching announcement bar on and off by themselves at the times you pick. On other plans, you change the bar by hand.

7. Free delivery above a value

Worked example: most of your orders are around ₹700, and delivery costs you ₹80 each. Set free delivery above ₹999. To get it, a buyer adds a ₹400 item. If that item earns you ₹180, you have paid ₹80 for delivery and kept ₹100 more than before. Set the value just above what most people spend, not below it, or you give free delivery on orders you were getting anyway.

On SitesPlaced: Settings → Shipping → Free delivery above. Once it is set, the free-shipping bar (“Add ₹299 more for free shipping”) shows by itself. Both are free. How to set the charge in the first place is in how to set shipping charges for an online store.

All seven, side by side

Pick two or three, not all seven. A store with five overlapping offers confuses buyers and is hard for you to pack correctly. A good small-store set: free delivery above a value all season, an early-bird code until mid-October, and a Dhanteras code on the day. More ideas for bigger orders are in how to increase average order value.

What not to do

• Don’t raise the price to “discount” it. Buyers who saw last month’s price notice, and it costs you their trust.
• Don’t run an offer past your order-by date without saying so. If an order placed on 2 November will arrive after Diwali, say it on the store.
• Don’t use countdown timers that reset or invented “only 2 left” lines. Real deadlines are enough.
• Don’t forget stock. If the free item in your offer runs out first, the offer becomes a pile of apologies. Set a stock count on every product.

When the offer lands

A good offer in a WhatsApp message or a reel sends many people to your store in the same few minutes. On every paid plan (Starter at ₹199/month and up), your store’s pages are kept ready close to shoppers and answer about 4× faster than on the free plan: about 75 ms instead of about 330 ms, in our 28 September 2026 measurements on live paid stores. “Answer” is the moment the page starts arriving on the phone, before the photos load. Price and stock changes still show at once. For the messages themselves, see Diwali WhatsApp messages for customers, and for a full AI-planned campaign, your Diwali campaign, planned by AI.

Frequently asked questions