Marketing
Diwali on WhatsApp: a 2026 campaign plan for shops and service businesses
Diwali 2026 falls on Sunday, 8 November. Here is a WhatsApp plan for the festive week, from opt-in and templates to greetings, offers, gift orders and payment links, and how to keep up with the replies.
MonoChat Team Updated: 6 min read
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To run a Diwali campaign on WhatsApp, message only customers who opted in, submit your templates by the end of October, send a short early-access note before Dhanteras, the main offer on Dhanteras morning, a last-chance reminder before Lakshmi Puja and a greeting with no sales message on the day itself. Keep payment links and gift-order answers ready in the chat, because the replies matter more than the sends.
This plan is for shops, D2C brands, sweet and gift shops, jewellers, electronics sellers and service businesses that sell to customers in India and to the Indian community abroad.
Diwali 2026 dates
| Day | Date | What it means for sellers |
|---|---|---|
| Dhanteras | Friday, 6 November | The traditional day to buy gold, silver, utensils and electronics |
| Naraka Chaturdashi (Chhoti Diwali) | Saturday, 7 November | Last-minute gifts and sweets |
| Lakshmi Puja (Diwali) | Sunday, 8 November | Greetings only; most shops close early |
| Govardhan Puja | Monday, 9 November | Quiet day; good for order updates |
| Bhai Dooj | Tuesday, 10 November | Gifts between brothers and sisters |
Why Diwali needs a chat plan
Diwali is India’s biggest shopping season. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) put festive trade between Navratri and Diwali at about ₹6.05 lakh crore in 2025, and in October 2026 its secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said he expects it to cross ₹7 lakh crore this year, 15–18% more than last year.
A lot of that buying starts with a question: “Is the 22-carat chain available in 18 grams?”, “Can you deliver to Pune before Saturday?”, “Do you have the gift hamper without dry fruits?” On WhatsApp, a reply in minutes is the difference between an order and a customer who asks the next shop.
Who to message
Split opted-in customers before writing a word:
| Segment | What they get |
|---|---|
| Bought from you in last year’s festive season | Early access to this year’s offer |
| Bought gifts or hampers before | Gift catalogue and the last order date for delivery |
| Jewellery or electronics buyers | A Dhanteras offer only |
| Corporate customers | Bulk gift ordering, with a call back from your team |
| Customers abroad (UAE, UK and others) | Greeting and a delivery cut-off for their country |
| Bought in the last 7 days | Thank-you and order update only |
Tags make this simple; see WhatsApp customer segmentation with tags. If your customers speak Hindi, Bengali, Tamil or English, write each segment’s template in its language; see multilingual customer support on WhatsApp.
A day-by-day plan
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| By 31 October | Submit your marketing templates (early access, Dhanteras offer, last chance, greeting) and utility templates (order confirmation, payment reminder, dispatch). |
| 2 November | Tag your segments, remove anyone who opted out, test a payment link. |
| 4 November | Early access to last year’s festive buyers. |
| 6 November, 9 am | Dhanteras offer to jewellery and electronics buyers; the gift catalogue to everyone else. |
| 7 November, morning | One last-chance reminder, only to customers who replied or clicked. |
| 8 November | A greeting, with no offer. |
| 9–12 November | Order updates, delivery confirmations, a review request. |
Message examples
Early access (marketing template):
Namaste {name}! Our Diwali collection is open for you two days before everyone else. Gift hampers from ₹999, with free delivery in Mumbai until 6 Nov. [See the hampers] [Stop promotions]
Dhanteras (marketing template):
Happy Dhanteras, {name}! Making charges are 20% off on gold coins and chains today only. Reply with the weight you are looking for and we’ll send options.
Greeting (marketing template, no offer):
Wishing you and your family a very happy Diwali. Thank you for being with us this year. — Team Sharma Sweets
Gift order confirmation (utility template):
Your order #5812 is confirmed: 3 dry fruit hampers, delivery to Bengaluru on 7 Nov. Reply here if anything changes.
Always offer a way to stop promotions, and honour it at once.
What it costs
Meta charges each delivered template by category and the recipient’s country. With the rate card of 1 October 2026, a marketing template to an Indian number costs $0.0118 and a utility template $0.0014, so 20,000 delivered Diwali offers cost about $236. Replies in the 24-hour customer service window are service messages, charged after 1,000 free per number per month. Our WhatsApp API pricing guide has the full table. Meta does not currently deliver marketing templates to US numbers; customers in the US can still message you and receive order updates.
Under India’s DPDP Act 2023, keep a record of how each customer agreed to hear from you, and make stopping as easy as one tap.
How to run Diwali in MonoChat
MonoChat is an official Meta Business Partner and puts WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, TikTok and web chat in one team inbox.
1. Build the segments. In the CRM, filter opted-in customers by tags and profile fields, save one filter per segment and click Send Bulk Message to Selected.
2. Schedule the sends. Choose the WhatsApp channel and Template Message, fill in the variables, pick Later and set 6 November, 9:00. Each send appears under System › Bulk Messaging with delivery and read status per recipient. See WhatsApp bulk messaging.
3. Test two offers. Send the bulk message as a Custom Flow and add a Random Split node: half the segment gets “20% off making charges”, half gets “free silver coin above ₹50,000”. Save Flow Variable keeps which version each customer got, so you can compare replies and payments.
4. Show the products. Carousel messages send swipeable gift cards; WhatsApp catalog and product messages covers the options.
5. Answer the rush. An AI agent answers stock, delivery and payment questions from your own information, in the customer’s language, and hands over to a person for custom orders. Workgroups route corporate gifting, orders and complaints to the right people.
6. Take payment in the chat. A Send Payment Request node sends a link from a payment provider you connected in MonoChat, for the order amount, and the New Payment Received event confirms the order and can tag the buyer. See how to accept payments in WhatsApp chats.
7. Use a ready-made app. The Shop Assistant app sends campaign messages to a chosen group (buyers, repeat customers, top spenders, buyers of a category) with your products, and the Store Assistant app does the same for physical shops.
Start for free at app.monochat.ai. Selling across Asia this month too? See the 11.11 WhatsApp campaign plan.
Sources
- Business Today: Festive sales to cross ₹7 lakh crore, CAIT’s Praveen Khandelwal says (14 Oct 2026, opened 30 Oct 2026)
- ePanchang: When is Diwali 2026 and Dekho Panchang: Diwali 2026 (opened 30 Oct 2026)
- Meta for Developers: Pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform (opened 30 Oct 2026)
- Meta for Developers: Template categorization (opened 30 Oct 2026)
- MonoChat help center: Bulk Messages, Flows and Payment Systems
Put this into practice with MonoChat