Flipkart to go big on quick commerce, amplifies same-day delivery in 20 cities

Walmart-owned Flipkart is planning to go big on quick commerce with same-day delivery in 20 cities with an extended product range to meet evolving customer expectations of value, selection and speed.

Incumbent quick commerce platforms such as Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart and Zepto are likely to find a formidable runner beside them in the race as the e-commerce giant is planning to launch 10-15 minutes delivery in as many as 12 cities, targeting the top quick commerce clusters, including Bengaluru, Delhi NCR and Hyderabad, among others, according to a report by Entrackr.

In a statement to CNBC-TV18, Flipkart’s spokesperson without explicitly confirming the move said the company is working towards “delivering a wide range of products to customers with speed”.

“Over the past few months, we have made several investments to enhance our delivery capabilities, including adding same-day delivery in 20 cities. This covers mobiles, essential items, electronics, home appliances, fashion, books and lifestyle products,” said the company spokesperson, adding that more initiatives can be expected on this front in the coming months.

This will be Flipkart’s second crack at quick commerce after it decided to scale down its ‘Flipkart Quick’ offering in late 2022.

The renewed interest in the segment comes at a time when the leading players—Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, and Zepto—are all expanding beyond grocery and threatening to tap the larger e-commerce market with a wider range of product offerings, from home appliances and fashion to stationary and mobile phones.

Of the total number of eTailing users in India, about 11% or 25 million people were annual transacting users of eGrocery as of FY23, according to a Redseer report.

With about 10-20 million monthly active users each, Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, and Zepto have not only cornered most of the quick commerce market in India, but also the country’s affluent consumer base with a diversified product portfolio.

While globally a majority of hyper-local companies have struggled to scale profitably, the story in India has been somewhat different.

“Q-commerce orders doubled over 2023, and now account for 40%–50% of India’s e-grocery spend. Leading Indian players have improved unit economics through a combination of scale, average order value growth, higher order density, and value-added fees,” according to a Bain-Flipkart report.

For all India's population power, consumption is still limited to just 30 million households with a per capita income of more than $15,000 and consisting of roughly 120 million Indians, as per Blume Ventures’ Indus Valley Report 2024.

"Quick commerce will eat eCommerce alive," predicted CRED founder Kunal Shah in a recent post on X, highlighting that bulk of eCommerce in India happens from a very small amount of affluent pincodes and on a small amount of SKUs.

India’s e-retail market is expected to reach over $160 billion by 2028, as per a Bain-Flipkart report. India’s annual transacting e-retail shopper base is estimated to have hit 230–250 million people in 2023. Over 100 million of these shoppers were added over the last three years.