bengaluru/new delhi, Sept. 25 -- The festive surge in online sales is being hampered by delivery delays, frustrating customers, potentially denting brand reputation and raising doubts about logistics firms' preparedness to handle high volumes of e-commerce traffic. Mounting delivery partner attrition and under-staffed warehouses are responsible for the widespread delays-up to 7 days in many cases-in e-commerce and quick commerce deliveries, as well as a backlog of unshipped orders, industry executives and analysts said. The situation underscores a critical choke point in the industry's supply chain that's unlikely to be resolved quickly, they added. The hold-up reflects a strain on the entire e-commerce ecosystem's capacity to meet the burgeoning volume of online deliveries during what is its most profitable season. Many orders fulfilled by major logistics firms like Blue Dart, Delhivery and Shiprocket are facing delays as long as 5-7 days in metro cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, up from 1-2 days during non-festive season days. Shruti, a 35-year-old marketing professional in Bengaluru, has been waiting for her shipment of activewear clothing for the past six days. "It was initially supposed to be delivered in two days. I got an email from the company saying there is an unexplained delay and the delivery date has now been moved to 1st October. The Blue Dart tracking link has not been updated yet." Ishwar, an avid e-commerce shopper, has reported similar delays for his smartphone order booked on Flipkart on day one of The Big Billion Days. The shipment has made little progress, prompting him to make multiple calls to customer support in the past two days. Many warehouses of large logistics firms in Delhi and Bengaluru show heaps of unshipped orders, especially as they deal with under-staffed pickers and packers. This situation couldn't have come at a worse time for e-commerce and logistics firms, when they aimed to prioritise quicker deliveries and build brand loyalty. Early insights from this year's major sale events like Flipkart's Big Billion Days and Amazon's Great Indian Festival already show sharp spikes compared to last year. For instance, smartphone sales volumes on 22 and 23 September surged nearly 40% compared to the first two days of sales last year, according to estimates from Datum Intelligence. Electronics like televisions and kitchen appliances surged more than 30% this year compared to the last, while fashion and beauty and personal care products grew 20%. The delivery crunch is creating ripple effects for smaller direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands that rely heavily on logistics networks to fulfill orders beyond their home markets. For young D2C founders, the delays have turned into a double-edged sword-lost sales during a peak season and damaged customer trust. "Logistics continues to be the bane of my business. The big players often delay intercity shipments by several days, and that directly eats into customer trust. I've had buyers tell me they'll never shop with me again because their order arrived seven days late - well past Ganesh Chaturthi festivities, when it was actually needed," said the founder of a D2C aromatics brand, asking not to be named as his brand continues to work with major fulfillment platforms. "On top of that, I end up absorbing higher return costs, since customers either refuse the package or send it back, which makes an already small-margin business even harder to sustain," he added....