Hustler Words – For years, pioneering Indian startups cultivated a market where consumers expected groceries and daily essentials delivered in mere minutes. Today, Flipkart, a subsidiary of Walmart, is dramatically narrowing the competitive distance with these early innovators, even as its global counterpart, Amazon, intensifies its own instant delivery initiatives. In a remarkably swift ascent over just two years, Flipkart’s dedicated quick-commerce arm is now aggressively challenging the established frontrunners in India’s burgeoning rapid delivery sector.
Flipkart Minutes, which marked the e-commerce titan’s strategic entry into quick commerce in August 2024, has witnessed an astonishing surge in operational scale. Sources familiar with the company’s performance informed Hustler Words that the service now processes between 1.1 million and 1.2 million orders daily. This represents a substantial leap from approximately 390,000 to 400,000 daily orders recorded just last November. This rapid expansion positions the two-year-old service remarkably close to Swiggy’s Instamart, which currently handles an estimated 1.4 million orders per day, according to an individual acquainted with its operations.
This rapid advancement is particularly noteworthy given Flipkart’s relatively late arrival in a segment historically dominated by Instamart, Blinkit, and Zepto. Food delivery giant Swiggy launched Instamart in 2020, followed by Zepto’s debut the subsequent year, both capitalizing on pandemic-driven demand. Blinkit, tracing its origins to the 2013-founded online grocery platform Grofers, has also firmly established itself among India’s premier quick-commerce providers.
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Market intelligence firm Datum Intelligence’s recent estimates indicate that Blinkit continues to lead the sector with approximately 3.4 million to 3.6 million daily orders, followed by Zepto at roughly 2.4 million to 2.6 million. Flipkart is now swiftly closing the gap with Instamart, which, by current order volume, represents the smallest of these three entrenched market leaders.
Despite Flipkart’s impressive growth, Instamart maintains significant operational breadth. Earlier this month, Swiggy revealed that its quick-commerce service boasts over 14 million monthly active users and operates more than 1,200 dark stores across over 130 cities. The company has also made strides in mitigating Instamart’s contribution-margin losses, with over 45% of its dark-store network now generating positive contribution margins.
Nevertheless, Flipkart has fueled its expansion through an aggressive build-out of its delivery infrastructure. Flipkart Minutes now leverages approximately 1,020 to 1,050 micro-fulfillment centers – essentially compact warehouses strategically positioned near customers for expedited deliveries. This network has grown significantly from 600 centers in January and just 340 a year prior, a source disclosed to Hustler Words. The company is reportedly adding around 100 such facilities each month, with an ambitious target of 1,500 by the close of 2026.
Flipkart’s strategic advantage extends beyond merely establishing more dark stores. The company can readily leverage its vast pool of existing e-commerce customers, cultivated over years and through billions of dollars in investment. This provides Minutes with a pre-qualified audience eager for faster delivery options, as noted by Satish Meena, an adviser at Datum Intelligence, in a conversation with Hustler Words.
"Flipkart has undeniably become a serious contender," Meena asserted. "Once you’ve opened 1,000 dark stores and are processing a million orders daily, that signifies a substantial market presence."
Furthermore, Minutes is observing robust customer retention and increased purchasing frequency. Approximately 65% to 70% of monthly customers are repeat buyers, while the average number of transactions per customer has escalated by 50% to 60% compared to the previous year, according to individuals familiar with the data.
These engaged customers are spending an average of ₹400 to ₹500 (approximately $4.20-$5.20) per order. Categories like fruits and vegetables, staples, dairy, and meat are experiencing particularly rapid growth. Flipkart is also broadening its selection of premium gourmet products, including organic and artisanal items, aiming to capture a larger share of customer spending through Minutes.
Remarkably, even amidst this expansion, Minutes has managed to reduce its average delivery time to approximately 11 minutes, down from 13 minutes a year ago, one of the sources informed Hustler Words.
The Battle for India’s Digital Shoppers
Flipkart’s ascendancy coincides with quick commerce playing an increasingly pivotal role in Indian online shopping habits, even as broader consumer demand has shown signs of moderation. A recent report by Bernstein analysts highlighted that while India’s consumption growth softened in July, the migration towards quick commerce and e-commerce continued unabated, with rapid delivery platforms reporting healthy growth in monthly active users.
Mirroring Flipkart’s strategy, Amazon is also aggressively pursuing market share in India’s quick-commerce landscape. The Seattle-based technology giant has been expanding Amazon Now, its own rapid delivery service, aiming to integrate the instant-delivery model with its extensive existing e-commerce customer base.
During CEO Andy Jassy’s visit to India in June, Amazon announced that Now had become its fastest-growing business in the country, with orders doubling every quarter since its inception. The company further outlined plans to extend the service to over 300 cities and establish a network exceeding 1,000 micro-fulfillment centers, complementing larger facilities designed to broaden the range of products available for minute-based delivery.
Neither Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy, Zepto, nor Blinkit’s parent company, Eternal, responded to requests for comment regarding these developments.
The expansion into quick commerce represents both an offensive and increasingly defensive maneuver for both Flipkart and Amazon, as explained by Meena to Hustler Words. As consumers become accustomed to near-instant gratification for certain purchases, the e-commerce behemoths risk ceding those transactions to specialized quick-commerce platforms if they cannot match comparable speeds.
"Can consumers revert to scheduled grocery deliveries now? Absolutely not," Meena concluded. "That shift is irreversible."
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