Quick commerce appears to be the flavour of the season. The “trinity” of Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart and Zepto appear to have leveraged their first-mover advantage in the space to cultivate strong brand recognition and captured a big chunk of the market share.
For context, these three players together reported over $1 Bn in revenue in FY24 while a report estimates that the quick commerce industry in India saw sales surge by 280% over the last two years.
Not stopping there, quick commerce players are now eyeing their next growth path by moving into the non-grocery category such as fashion and electronics. Unlike deep-pocketed vertically-integrated marketplaces, which take days for deliveries, the USP of quick commerce lies in the “10-minute” magic.
Such has been its sudden rise that many project quick commerce platforms to eventually eat into the market share of traditional ecommerce platforms. Fearful of missing the bus, Flipkart has already entered the burgeoning space with “Minutes” while Amazon has been lining up plans to make its quick commerce foray.
Not just these big titans, but a host of new startups, conglomerates and even other new-age tech companies, too, have also been trying to replicate this success.
While Nykaa and Myntra have been experimenting with this for apparel deliveries, Swish wants to utilise the model to bring piping hot quick-to-prepare dishes to users within “10 minutes”. And this is just the tip of the iceberg as many new players in the ecosystem are now looking to emulate the growth trajectory of the “Trinity”.
As a new wave of quick commerce players and adopters continue to spawn, we thought of curating a list of companies planning to ace the “10-minute” delivery game in the country. Without further ado, here’s a look at the Indian quick commerce landscape outside of Blinkit, Instamart and Zepto.
Editor’s Note: This is neither an exhaustive list nor a ranking of any kind. We have listed the startups alphabetically.
Meet India’s New Quick Commerce Brigade
1. Amazon India
The Indian arm of the US-based ecommerce giant has been slow to jump on the quick commerce bandwagon. Despite the rising competition, Amazon plans to roll out its quick commerce vertical in the first quarter of 2025, even though its closest rival, Flipkart, already has made its foray into the segment.
Amazon claims to be already building up to the launch, saying that it is strengthening its supply chain for grocery and essentials through Amazon Fresh and is currently targeting deliveries within 20 to 30 minutes.
Earlier this year, its grocery delivery arm expanded its footprint to 130 cities, including Ambala, Aurangabad, Hoshiarpur, Dharwad, and Una, doubling its presence from about 50 Indian cities a year ago.
Alongside, Amazon India has also been pushing for same-day deliveries across various product lines for its Prime membership customers as it lines up quick commerce foray.
2. BBnow
Tata’s BigBasket is arguably one of the biggest competitors to the three incumbents in the Indian quick commerce arena. Having already experimented with 30-minute deliveries for some products for the past few years, BigBasket, as a natural extension, became a full-scale quick commerce platform earlier this year.
BigBasket’s quick commerce strategy will see the deployment of 500-600 dark stores nationwide, which will work alongside its 56-60 large warehouses. It plans to link clusters of dark stores with these warehouses to streamline the delivery of both popular grocery items and non-grocery products.
As per reports, BigBasket has set its eyes on generating $1 Bn out of its projected $1.5 Bn sales for the ongoing financial year 2024-25 (FY25) through the quick commerce vertical.
3. FirstClub
Founded by former Cleartrip’s chief executive Ayyappan R, FirstClub aims to establish itself as a Costco for India. The startup is said to be in talks with Accel and RTP Global to raise capital for the quick commerce-centric retail venture.
FirstClub will likely focus on delivering a curated selection of premium products in a timeline of 20 to 30 minutes. This quick commerce offering will also uniquely feature an offline retail presence, which is why large VCs are in talks for the seed round.
This platform is looking to offer consumers a variety of products, including unbranded goods like dry fruits and freshly ground atta, along with premium food items such as blueberries and avocados.
4. Flipkart Minutes
In what has been touted as Flipkart’s biggest bet in years, Minutes was first piloted by the ecommerce major in parts of Bengaluru in August. Subsequently, the company expanded its quick commerce offerings to Delhi NCR.
Modelled after giants like Blinkit, Instamart and Zepto, Minutes sells an assortment of grocery and non-grocery products within “10-minutes”.
What sets it apart from competitors is the company’s claim that its users can cancel or refuse to collect their orders if the experience does not “meet expectations”.
5. JioMart
Reliance Retail-owned JioMart has also made a comeback in the quick commerce arena by piloting instant delivery of groceries and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) in some parts of Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.
The service went live on the JioMart app under the ‘hyperlocal delivery’ section and is said to deliver orders within an hour in the initial stages.
The retailer, however, plans to reduce the delivery time between 30 and 45 minutes during the later stages, while also expanding its product categories to include apparel and electronic items.
JioMart will bank on Reliance Retail’s network of over 18,000 stores across the country to fulfil its orders.
Reliance Retail previously operated its quick commerce venture under a pilot called JioMart Express, which was shut down in early 2023.
6. Myntra
Flipkart-owned Myntra is one of the first fashion and lifestyle ecommerce platforms to jump into the quick commerce bandwagon.
Even though Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy have added fashion SKUs in the past few years, Myntra is the first dedicated player in this space, with a four-hour delivery window in some parts of Bengaluru and Delhi.
Additionally, the fashion giant is planning to expand this quick delivery option in multiple cities by the end of 2024.
Earlier, Myntra’s ‘M-Express’ service delivered orders in a 24-to-48 hour window to select cities.
7. Nykaa
Listed beauty marketplace Nykaa, too, has been experimenting with a quick commerce pilot in the financial capital of the country. In October 2024, Nykaa launched a 10-minute delivery pilot in select parts of Mumbai, covering 5% of its SKU base.
However, brokerages expect Nykaa to witness higher fulfilment costs due to its ambition of fast deliveries, adversely impacting its EBITDA margin.
8. Ola
Mobility giant Ola Consumer is also said to be reconsidering venturing into the quick commerce arena. As per reports, Ola is working on setting up automated dark stores to speed up deliveries and minimise the human involvement in the packaging process.
This comes amid the company’s attempts to disrupt the food delivery segment once again with the help of the Open Network For Digital Commerce (ONDC).
Previously, the company ventured into quick commerce under the label Ola Dash in 2015. However, Ola pulled the shutters down on Dash in mid-2022 to channel its focus on its electric vehicles and mobility businesses.
9. Slikk
Slikk is one of the newest entrants in the quick commerce space, having been founded in August 2024 by Akshay Gulati, Om Swami and Bipin Singh. Earlier this year, it raised INR 2.5 Cr in a pre-seed round led by Better Capital, with additional participation from Untitled Ventures.
The fashion ecommerce platform claims to deliver branded apparel items within 60 minutes in select locations of Bengaluru and claims to be catering to about 100 users per day.
Slikk claims to have implemented algorithms and machine learning to gauge customer preferences and shopping behaviours to personalise its app.
10. Swish
Founded in August 2024 by Aniket Shah, Ujjwal Sukheja and Saran S, Swish offers 10-minute food delivery services in select parts of Bengaluru. The startup delivers a range of fast food offerings in just 10 to 15 minutes via its mobile application.
Currently, the startup only operates a cloud kitchen in Bengaluru’s HSR Layout, catering about 200 orders daily.
The startup is eyeing to set up more such cloud kitchens in the next six months in a bid to cater to the most high-demand areas of the city, while it also has plans to expand outside the tech hub in due course of time.
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