Flipkart plans standalone app for Minutes amid q-commerce slowdown

Spin-off of Flipkart Minutes into a standalone app comes as rivals scale up and growth slows in India's crowded quick-commerce market, especially across major urban centres

Flipkart is preparing to spin off its quick-commerce service, Flipkart Minutes, into a standalone app ahead of its Big Billion Days sale, according to people familiar with the matter.

 

The service, currently housed within the main Flipkart app, is expected to launch as a separate app in the next quarter, with a pilot targeted around July and a broader rollout planned before year-end, according to the sources.

 

Flipkart’s move follows Swiggy’s launch of a standalone Instamart app, as the company bets quick commerce could outpace food delivery in scale.

 

Analysts say standalone apps can boost visibility, but adoption remains uneven. In India’s quick-commerce market, Blinkit reportedly leads with about 2.6 million orders per day. Zepto follows with an estimated 1.5–1.6 million daily orders, while JioMart processes around 1.6 million orders daily. Swiggy’s Instamart records about 1.2 million daily orders.

   

India’s quick-commerce (qcom) industry, once defined by rapid expansion, is entering a more complex phase as saturation in metro markets begins to weigh on profitability, US-based research firm Bernstein said.

 

There are more than 6,000 dark stores operating nationwide, with a dense overlap across urban pincodes, according to the report. Competition among qcom players has intensified as they chase the same set of customers. This points to diminishing returns for firms even as they expand into smaller cities.

 

“QC (quick commerce) is a way of life in (India’s) top-four cities already. (But) customer behaviour has changed,” it added.

 

The sector has scaled quickly, with more than 5,700–6,000 dark stores operated by leading players including Blinkit, Instamart, Zepto, Flipkart and Amazon as of April 2026, serving roughly 2,600 pincodes and about 230 million people, or around 17 per cent of India’s population.

 

The rapid build-out has been particularly concentrated in large cities. The Bernstein report suggests that dark-store network consolidation or rationalisation is necessary for improving profitability in metros. One approach, adopted by Blinkit and Swiggy, is to push higher average order values through non-grocery categories to drive better margins.

 

Beyond metros, the next phase of growth lies in tier-1 and -2 cities, though this expansion remains uncertain. While these markets offer headroom, they present structural challenges including lower population density, awareness and spending power.