Business Standard ·
Economy, business and finance
Quick commerce becomes the new battleground as festive season approaches
Quick commerce is emerging as the key battleground this festive season as Amazon, Flipkart, Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart expand delivery networks beyond metros.
E-commerce giants bank on speed as they expand beyond metros ahead of Big Billion Days, Great Indian Festival sale event.
6 min read Last Updated : Sep 16 2026 | 6:54 PM IST
India's e-commerce giants are betting on speed to win this year's festive season. Festive online sales are projected to grow as much as 29 per cent this year, reaching up to ₹1,55,000 crore ($17.6 billion) from ₹1,20,000 crore in 2025, according to Datum Intelligence, as shoppers increasingly expect groceries, electronics and personal care items to be delivered within minutes.
Quick commerce, which promises delivery within minutes, is expected to account for about 16 per cent of sales, up from 12 per cent last year. Amazon, Flipkart, Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart are all expanding their delivery networks into Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns ahead of the season's biggest consumption events.
The build-out marks a shift in strategy, with delivery speed and geographic reach emerging as the next competitive battleground.
The shift is also visible in what shoppers are buying. Grocery sales are expected to grow 41 per cent this year, largely on the back of quick commerce, according to Datum. Mobile, still the season's largest category by value, is expected to grow just 6 per cent, as phone prices rise and shipments decline.
Various analyst reports highlight how the competition is playing out on the ground. In the quick-commerce race, Eternal's Blinkit currently holds a dominant position, according to a CLSA report. The brokerage found that Blinkit accounts for close to 30 per cent of dark stores across the country's top 10 cities and more than 34 per cent nationally. It has the leading store count in six of those cities, with Zepto leading in three of the remaining four. Blinkit's presence in more than 180 cities positions it to capture an outsized share of the market as adoption spreads beyond India's largest metros.
The report said quick-commerce players are deepening their presence in existing markets while expanding into new geographies. The sector's footprint has grown to 477 cities nationally, with the top 10 cities alone accounting for 3,536 dark stores across the five players CLSA tracks: Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, Flipkart Minutes, and BigBasket.
Within the top 10 cities, Flipkart Minutes has already surpassed Swiggy Instamart in both dark store count and pincode coverage. Flipkart Minutes counted 627 dark stores in the top 10 cities, compared with Swiggy Instamart's 615, while BigBasket trailed the group with 497, according to CLSA report.
Flipkart is expanding its delivery network to meet customer demand ahead of its Big Billion Days shopping event in October. Its quick-commerce service, Flipkart Minutes, now operates nearly 1,200 micro-fulfilment centers across more than 150 cities. The service has quadrupled its business over the past year as it marks two years since its August 2024 launch. The platform's biggest single order to date was worth ₹6 lakh and included five smartphones.
“By year end, we look forward to about 1,500 micro-fulfillment centres," Kunal Gupta, senior vice president and head of Flipkart Minutes, told Business Standard.
Tier 2-plus markets are emerging as an important driver of this growth, with the customer base growing nearly 25 times year-on-year across cities such as Ambala, Kanpur, and Tiruppur. Demand in these markets is extending beyond daily essentials, with strong uptake of products such as Korean noodles, sauces and ready-to-eat meals, alongside premium skincare and personal care.
Gen Z has also emerged as the fastest-growing customer cohort on Flipkart Minutes, with its base growing nearly five times in the past twelve months. Gen Z drives over 45 per cent of orders across categories such as beauty, electronics and gaming, while accounting for one in three gourmet orders on the platform.
Rival Amazon is also hosting the Great Indian Festival sale event next month, and quick commerce is expected to play a key role. The company said its ultra-fast delivery service, Amazon Now, has reached $1 billion in annualised gross sales in India over the past three-month period. Amazon Now orders have doubled every quarter since launch, making it the fastest-growing business in Amazon India's history.
The company has expanded Amazon Now to four times more cities in less than 10 weeks, taking delivery-in-minutes to over 60 Indian cities and towns. Apart from metros, the service is now available in towns such as Padubidri, Guntur, and Warangal. These orders are delivered within minutes through a network of over 750 micro-fulfilment and urban fulfilment centers.
“We are on track to expand to 100 cities by Diwali,” said Samir Kumar, country manager, Amazon India.
People familiar with the matter said Amazon Now's average order value is around ₹540, with the company handling about 700,000 orders a day. They said Amazon Now has a 10 per cent market share by orders and 14 per cent by value.
Amazon also announced its biggest-ever expansion of its operations network ahead of the festive season, with the launch of 20 new fulfilment centres, six new sort centres, and 150 new last-mile delivery stations. The expansion increases Amazon's total storage capacity by 50 per cent to 64 million cubic feet.
The e-commerce rivals are also ramping up seasonal hiring. Amazon said it has created more than 160,000 seasonal work opportunities across its pan-India operations network, spanning large metros as well as tier 2 and 3 cities like Varanasi, Kochi and Ranchi. Flipkart said it has created more than 2.5 lakh direct and indirect employment opportunities, including gig workers, of which nearly 75,000, or close to 30 per cent, are for people entering the workforce for the first time. These opportunities span more than 7,000 Ekart facilities across the country, including fulfilment centres, sortation hubs, and last-mile delivery operations. Last-mile roles account for 60 per cent of Flipkart's new hiring this season, reflecting the expansion of Flipkart Minutes and growing demand across Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets.
“This year, we are expanding our fulfilment and last-mile network significantly to meet rising customer demand, while creating employment opportunities across the country,” said Hemant Badri, senior vice president, supply chain, customer experience and re-commerce, Flipkart Group.
Urban spending sentiment is at its strongest in three and a half years, but rural households have grown more cautious about spending in the months ahead, and a weaker-than-normal monsoon could weigh on demand in the smaller towns platforms are now racing to reach, Datum found.