Walmart's Flipkart Closes In on India Quick-Commerce Leaders

India's fast-paced quick-commerce sector is heating up as Walmart-owned Flipkart rapidly narrows the gap with established market pioneers, despite entering the instant-delivery race relatively late. Launched in August 2024, Flipkart Minutes is now fulfilling between 1.1 million and 1.2 million orders daily, scaling up significantly from roughly 390,000 to 400,000 orders per day back in November.

This impressive trajectory brings the two-year-old service within striking distance of Swiggy Instamart, which handles about 1.4 million orders a day. Meanwhile, Blinkit continues to lead the market with 3.4 million to 3.6 million daily orders, followed by Zepto with 2.4 million to 2.6 million, according to recent estimates from market research firm Datum Intelligence.

The aggressive growth is fueled by a rapid expansion of Flipkart's delivery infrastructure. Minutes currently operates roughly 1,020 to 1,050 micro-fulfillment centers, up from 600 in January, with plans to scale the network to 1,500 facilities by the end of 2026. Furthermore, the e-commerce giant leverages its massive, pre-existing customer base acquired over years of operations to funnel ready audiences into the instant-delivery platform.

Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event

"Flipkart can tap an enormous pool of existing e-commerce customers it has already spent years and billions of dollars acquiring, giving Minutes a ready audience for faster deliveries."

Satish Meena, Datum Intelligence

Customer retention and engagement are also on an upward trend. Roughly 65% to 70% of monthly active buyers are repeat customers, while transactions per user have surged 50% to 60% year-over-year. Shoppers spend an average of about 400 to 500 rupees per order, with fresh produce, kitchen staples, dairy, and meat driving high-volume growth alongside newly introduced gourmet and organic selections.