India's fast-growing quick-commerce market has a new, well-funded entrant: Walmart-owned Flipkart, the country's largest e-commerce company.
Flipkart has started rolling out its fast-commerce service Flipkart Minutes in select areas of Bangalore. The new service offers customers the ability to get a range of items, from groceries to smartphones, delivered within 10 to 15 minutes. The e-commerce company is offering free delivery on orders above Rs 100 ($1.20).
Flipkart is the latest entrant into the instant commerce market, and despite the failure of the model in many other markets, it is gaining traction in India. The quick commerce company, which relies on hundreds of small warehouses, or “dark stores,” strategically located near residential and commercial areas to provide fast delivery, has expanded into a number of categories in recent months, including fashion and electronics, increasingly entering the traditional turf of Amazon and Flipkart.
Flipkart did not immediately respond to a request for comment. TechCrunch reported in March that Flipkart was working on a fast-commerce product.
The move comes at a time when the Indian quick-commerce sector is showing remarkable resilience and growth. The convenience of 10-minute grocery delivery has resonated with urban Indian consumers, and has been an encouraging sign for companies like Zomato-owned Blinkit, StepStone-backed Zepto, and SoftBank-backed Swiggy Instamart.
Analysts and investors love the space, too. Goldman Sachs estimates that India’s leading quick-commerce company Blinkit is already worth more than its parent company’s eponymous food delivery business. Zomato’s stock hit a record high last week, giving it a market cap of $30 billion, after the company, which acquired Blinkit for less than $600 million in 2022, reported quarterly profits of about $30 million.
Flipkart is the leader in e-commerce in India, but Amazon has a stronger hold on urban Indian customers. The Bengaluru-based startup sees fast commerce as a way to capture some of Amazon’s best Indian customers, according to people familiar with the matter.
Amazon has shown little interest in entering India’s quick-commerce market, focusing instead on same-day delivery for Prime members and questioning the quality of its “fast” delivery service in its marketing campaigns. The world’s largest e-commerce company is in separate talks to buy a stake in Swiggy, which has secretly filed for a new initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter.
A recent analysis by TechCrunch found that many of the top-selling items on Amazon India were being sold on the quickcommerce platform, meaning Amazon India could be losing some business and traffic to quickcommerce companies.
