Quick commerce becomes the new battleground as festive season approaches

The race for speedy delivery gathers pace for the festival season as quick commerce firms expand beyond metros

­When sales of iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max opened at 8 am on September 18, BigBasket — the Tata-owned firm still best known as an online grocer — swung into action. By 9 am, it had delivered more than 300 iPhones. That’s more than five handsets sold and delivered every minute.  

 

BigBasket said this year that customers on the platform ordered from home and had the device in hand before the morning was out — a shift from being among the first in the queue to being among the first to own it.

 

BigBasket’s pivot may seem counterintuitive, but the shift is visible in what shoppers are buying this festive season. 

 

Grocery sales are expected to grow 41 per cent, the fastest of any category tracked, though slightly slower than the 45 per cent pace of the 2025 festive season, largely on the back of quick commerce, according to Datum Intelligence.

 

To be sure, mobile phone sales are expected to grow just 6 per cent, sharply down from 26 per cent last festive season, as phone prices rise and shipments decline due to a memory chip supply crunch and rising prices. But it is still the season’s largest category by value. 

 

It’s not BigBasket alone that’s banking on delivering goods within minutes to customers in the midst of festivities — Amazon, Flipkart, Blinkit, Zepto, Myntra and Swiggy Instamart are all expanding their delivery networks in preparation.

 

That last-minute buy

 

Festive online sales are projected to grow as much as 29 per cent this year, reaching up to ₹1.55 trillion ($17.6 billion) from ₹1.20 trillion in 2025, according to Datum, 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 during the festive season, up from 12 per cent last year.

 

Quick commerce’s order volume was running 47 per cent above year-ago levels in August, with its GMV (gross merchandise value) run-rate reaching $20.8 billion, up 41 per cent from $14.7 billion a year earlier, according to Datum.

 

The build-out marks a shift in strategy, with delivery speed and reach emerging as the next competitive battleground and Tier-II and -III towns turning the focus of quick commerce firms ahead of the season’s biggest consumption events. And it’s not only groceries, Indian ecommerce and quick-commerce companies are also extending their speed advantage to premium electronics. 

 

Various analyst reports highlight how the competition is playing out on the ground. Eternal’s Blinkit currently holds the 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 means it is well-placed to capture an outsized share of the market as adoption spreads beyond the metros.

 

Quick-commerce (Qcomm) 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.

 

Alongside, advertising spending on Qcomm platforms is expected to reach Rs 6,000 crore in 2026, up from Rs 1,325 crore two years ago, as the channel becomes a route to discovery, according to Datum. Qcom advertising may account for around Rs 2,200 crore of festival advertising expenditure in 2026, marking a 50 per cent jump over the previous year.

 

Big boys of ecomm

 

The big ecommerce players such as Amazon and Flipkart are also swinging into action. 

 

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 centres 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.  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.

 

The platform says its biggest single order to date, which included five smartphones, was for Rs 6 lakh but hasn’t said when it took place.

 

“By the year-end, we look forward to setting up about 1,500 micro-fulfilment centres,” Kunal Gupta, senior vice president and head of Flipkart Minutes, told Business Standard.

 

Tier II-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 to items beyond the daily essentials, with a strong uptake in Korean noodles, sauces and ready-to-eat meals, alongside premium skincare and personal care goods.

 

Gen Z has 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 hosting its sale event — the Great Indian Festival — 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 its launch in June 2025, 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 centres.

 

“We are on track to expanding 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 Rs 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.

 

More jobs too

 

The ecommerce 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-II and -III cities like Varanasi, Kochi and Ranchi. Flipkart said it has created more than 250,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities, including for 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 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-II and Tier-III 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.

 

Quick fashion

 

Online fashion retailer Myntra said it is creating about 26,000 seasonal employment opportunities ahead of its Big Fashion Festival in October, more than double the seasonal workforce from last year. Women will account for 30 per cent of the fulfilment centre workforce. The opportunities span fulfilment, last-mile delivery, and customer service, as Myntra scales its operations during its shopping sale event.

 

“As we move into Navratri and Durga Puja, we will enable customers to shop with greater relevance, selection and speed through M-Now,” said Ritesh Mishra, senior vice president, head of category and revenue, Myntra. M-Now is Myntra’s “hyper-speed” delivery platform that reaches fashion products within 30 minutes.

 

Myntra said speed remains central to the festive experience. With its additional workforce, Myntra said it is strengthening its capacity to deliver faster during the Big Fashion Festival, including through M-Express, which enables deliveries within 24 to 48 hours in eligible locations.

 

However, while urban spending sentiment is at its strongest in three-and-a-half years, 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. 

Season’s score 

₹1.55 trillion: Projected festive online sales, up from ₹1.20 trillion in 2025

16%: Expected share of festive sales from quick commerce, up from 12% last year

$20.8 billion: Qcomm gross merchandise value  run-rate, up 41% from $14.7 billion a year ago

477 cities: Qcomm footprint

3,536 dark stores:  Across the top 10 cities tracked by CLSA

1,200: Flipkart Minutes’ micro-fulfilment centres across more than 150 cities

$1 billion: Amazon Now’s annualised gross sales in India over the past three months

750+: Amazon Now’s micro-fulfilment and urban fulfilment centres

250,000+: Direct and indirect festive employment opportunities created by Flipkart

26,000: Seasonal employment opportunities created by Myntra

160,000: Seasonal work opportunities created by Amazon

Source: Datum,CLSA Flipkart, Amazon, Myntra   :