AppsFlyer Reports 85% Growth in India’s Android Shopping Installs as Day-30 Retention Falls

AppsFlyer issued the following report announcement on September 24, 2026. Its percentages describe the apps and markets measured by the company, rather than a census of all eCommerce. The 85% growth figure concerns Android shopping-app installs, not revenue or the entire eCommerce economy.

India’s Android Shopping App Installs Grow 85% in Measured Period: AppsFlyer

– AppsFlyer’s latest India data reveals an 85% two-year surge in shopping app installs, 71% of global Android shopping sessions, and a sharp 41% fall in Day 30 retention.

BENGALURU, INDIA, September 24th, 2026: India has emerged as the world’s largest growth engine for mobile shopping activity, accounting for the majority of global Android shopping installs and sessions among markets measured by AppsFlyer, a global leader in mobile measurement and marketing analytics. But beneath that exceptional scale, a new challenge is beginning to surface: keeping newly acquired users engaged beyond the initial purchase window.

According to the latest AppsFlyer State of eCommerce for Marketers in India – 2026 Edition, Android Shopping installs in India grew 85% between Q3 2024 and Q2 2026, compared with just 2% globally. During the Navratri quarter alone, installs surged 136% year-on-year, while organic installs rose 143%, highlighting the extraordinary intensity of India’s festive demand cycle.

India’s lead becomes even more pronounced when looking at engagement. The country now accounts for 63% of global Android Shopping installs and 71% of Android Shopping sessions across the markets tracked by AppsFlyer, with sessions representing India’s strongest share of any Shopping metric measured.

Yet the same data reveals a significant shift further down the funnel.

After remaining broadly stable through 2025, Day 30 retention on Android fell 41% between Q4 2025 and Q2 2026, compared with a 30% decline globally. The decline was considerably sharper than the movement in Day 1 and Day 7 retention, pointing to a problem that emerges not immediately after acquisition, but as users move deeper into the lifecycle.

At the same time, India’s remarketing spend declined 42% over the same two-quarter period, while user acquisition spend increased 10%. Remarketing conversions subsequently fell 62% in Q2 2026.

The data therefore presents a market at an interesting inflection point: India continues to generate exceptional acquisition and engagement at a global scale, but the ability to convert that initial momentum into sustained user relationships is becoming increasingly important.

“India’s install numbers are exceptional by any global measure, and quick commerce is a big part of why. But the bigger opportunity is often with what the customer marketers already have. The data shows engagement holding up even as install growth cools,” said Sanjay Trisal, General Manager India & ANZ at AppsFlyer. “That’s the piece that’s easy to under-invest in when acquisition looks this strong. What’s missing is the confidence to act on what the data already shows. That’s the conversation this report is built to start.”

India’s growth is bigger than the festive spike.

The scale of India’s shopping growth extends beyond a single festive quarter. Across the full two-year period measured, India’s Android installs grew 85%, while the global benchmark increased only 2%. Although India’s install volume subsequently cooled 22% from its Q3 2025 peak by Q2 2026, the decline broadly tracked the global slowdown, suggesting that the post-peak moderation is not unique to India.

What stands out is that engagement has held up better than acquisition.

Android sessions declined only 5% from their Q3 2025 peak through Q2 2026, compared with a 22% decline in installs. On iOS, sessions continued to rise, increasing 13% over the same period. This divergence suggests that the users already on shopping platforms are continuing to engage even as the pace of new-user acquisition moderates.

The shift is also visible in India’s acquisition mix. Paid installs overtook organic installs in absolute volume by Q1 2026, reversing the pattern that had prevailed through most of 2025. Globally, organic installs continued to remain ahead of paid installs.

The retention question is becoming harder to ignore.

The sharpest change in the report is the deterioration in longer-term retention.

Day 30 retention on Android remained at around 4% across Q2, Q3, and Q4 2025 before falling 41% over the following two quarters. By comparison, Day 1 retention declined only 8% and Day 7 retention 16% during the same period.

AppsFlyer’s analysis points towards the two-to-eight-week period after installation as a particularly important window for marketers to investigate. The timing suggests that the challenge is less about getting consumers to return immediately after downloading an app and more about maintaining relevance as the initial acquisition experience fades.

This becomes particularly relevant against the backdrop of India’s rapidly expanding quick-commerce and festive-commerce ecosystem. India’s quick-commerce market has crossed $10 billion in GMV, representing approximately 15% of total eCommerce GMV, according to Redseer. India’s festive eCommerce season also opened at nearly 3.5 times business-as-usual GMV levels during its first 11 days, with the Navratri period emerging as the strongest demand peak for the shopping vertical.

The combination creates a more complex marketing environment: more users, more frequent engagement, and increasingly concentrated periods of demand, but a greater need to sustain those relationships once the initial transaction cycle ends.

India combines massive scale with comparatively lower ad fraud

The report also identifies a positive signal around traffic quality.

India’s Android fraud rate fell from 10% in Q3 2024 to 3% in Q2 2026, compared with a global rate of 7%. On iOS, India’s fraud rate declined to 1%, against 3% globally.

While India’s Android fraud rate increased 30% quarter-on-quarter in the latest period measured, the broader two-year trajectory remains significantly improved. The decline in fraud across both platforms provides greater confidence in the underlying measurement of India’s acquisition and remarketing activity.

India also generates a significantly larger share of global shopping activity than its share of advertising spend would suggest. The country accounts for 63% of global Android Shopping installs and 71% of sessions but just 19% of global Android UA spend. On iOS, India represents 16% of installs but only 2% of UA spend.

Marketers are asking more about acquisition than retention.

The report’s analysis of more than 8,000 AI-assistant queries from nearly 400 eCommerce brands globally provides another perspective on the shift marketers may need to make.

64% of eCommerce marketers’ AI queries focus on user acquisition and remarketing performance, while questions around engagement and retention account for just 9%. Within performance analysis, 48% of queries are quick-answer requests or simple data pulls, while only 4% involve strategic or diagnostic analysis such as anomaly detection or causal analysis.

The contrast is notable: while retention is emerging as a measurable pressure point in India’s data, it receives a considerably smaller share of marketers’ analytical attention.

For India’s eCommerce ecosystem, the next phase of growth may therefore depend less on simply adding more users and more on understanding which users return, when they disengage, what brings them back, and how acquisition spend translates into longer-term customer value.

Key findings from the report

85%: Growth in India’s Android Shopping installs between Q3 2024 and Q2 2026, versus 2% globally.
136%: Year-on-year increase in Android installs during India’s Navratri quarter.
71%: India’s share of global Android Shopping sessions across measured markets.
41%: Decline in India’s Day 30 Android retention between Q4 2025 and Q2 2026.
42%: Decline in India’s remarketing spend over the same two-quarter period, while UA spend rose 10%.
62%: Decline in India’s Android remarketing conversions in Q2 2026.
18%: Growth in India’s Android Share of Paying Users between Q3 2024 and Q1 2026.
3%: India’s Android fraud rate in Q2 2026, down from 10% two years earlier.
64%: Share of AI-assistant queries from global eCommerce brands focused on UA and remarketing performance, versus 9% focused on engagement and retention.

About the report

AppsFlyer’s State of eCommerce for Marketers in India 2026 Edition analyses 2.24 billion installs across 210 apps, $290 million in UA and remarketing ad spend, and 1.63 billion Android remarketing conversions within India’s Shopping vertical. The report covers eight quarters from Q3 2024 through Q2 2026, comparing India with global benchmarks.

All results are based on fully anonymized and aggregated data. AppsFlyer applies strict volume thresholds and methodologies and presents results only where these conditions are met. GMV figures referenced in the report are sourced from Redseer, while the analysis of AI-assistant queries comes from AppsFlyer’s companion global State of eCommerce for Marketers report.

Interpreting the comparisons

The retention and spending movements occur over the same period, but the release does not establish a causal experiment showing that lower remarketing expenditure caused the retention decline. Likewise, the AI-assistant query analysis comes from a global companion study, not an India-only sample. These distinctions should remain clear if the findings are summarised or used in a headline.