Quick commerce drives 45% of festival purchases this year: Report

With the quick commerce segment becoming a mainstream shopping behaviour in India, the country saw 45 per cent of festive shopping taking place on quick commerce platforms, according to a report released by WPP Media and Meta on Friday.

 

The report titled CPAS (Collaborative Performance Advertising Solutions) Playbook for Retail and Quick Commerce in India highlighted that quick commerce now contributes nearly two-thirds of all online grocery orders. This is steadily expanding beyond metros, with smaller cities growing at 8 to 9 per cent annually. With the rising prominence of this segment, it has also become crucial for brands to showcase their products for discovery and tap into impulse-driven sales. Additionally, quick commerce has now become the next growth phase for e-commerce giants as the report estimated it to have a 16 per cent share of the overall e-commerce market by 2027. 

“A sector that began as a way to grab last-minute groceries has now turned into a habit that shapes how millions of Indians shop. In just three years, the quick commerce market has expanded from under Rs 8,000 crore in FY22 to an estimated Rs 64,000 crore in FY25, growing at an extraordinary 142 per cent CAGR. By FY28, it is projected to cross Rs 2 lakh crore, outpacing traditional ecommerce several times over,” the report stated. 

The top three platforms, Blinkit (45 per cent share), Swiggy Instamart (25 per cent share) and Zepto (23 per cent), together have about 90 per cent market share. Apart from groceries, other categories such as fashion accessories and bags have already crossed Rs 40 crore a month, more than doubling in the past six months this year, the report added.

 

At the same time, product discovery is shifting, with about 80 per cent of Indian shoppers discovering new products through social media. In 2018, product discovery used to be led by search options, followed by TV.

 

“The meteoric rise of quick commerce has compressed the purchase journey like never before. The CPAS framework helps brands bridge the final mile from discovery to verified sale through catalogue integration and real-time optimisation,” said Ashwin Padmanabhan, chief operating officer (COO), South Asia at WPP Media, in a statement. “We are already seeing ROAS (return on ad spend) as high as two times in certain categories, proving the power of this model.”

 

Gaurav Jeet Singh, director, agencies and VC partnerships (India) at Meta, said India is at the forefront of a global shift where discovery and commerce are converging in real time.

 

“With CPAS, we’re enabling brands to meet consumers at the moment of inspiration and carry that intent seamlessly to purchase,” said Singh.

 

This follows with nearly 730 million people in India using Meta apps like WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook on a monthly basis. Instagram, the photo and short-form video-sharing social networking app, has 725 million users accessing it every month, followed by WhatsApp at 719 million users on a monthly basis, the report stated.

 

With 75 per cent of online grocery shoppers having significantly increased their unplanned purchases in the last six months in India, discovery on Meta now directly connects shoppers to purchase items on retailer platforms.

 

Using the CPAS model, Singh said Coca-Cola was able to optimise its sugar-free portfolio, leveraging retailer-linked catalogue signals to reach the highest-intent shoppers. Through this, the sugar-free retail segment had a 39 per cent improvement in ROAS, while conversion rates were 2.5 times stronger compared to broad-based audiences.

 

“This high-intent segment also delivered 40 per cent lower acquisition costs (for Coca-Cola), highlighting the power of combining Meta’s discovery ecosystem with retailer commerce data to drive efficient, outcome-led growth,” the release said.