Flipkart To Double Down On Quick Commerce In 2025

About a week after receiving a from its Singapore parent, Walmart-owned Flipkart’s CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy has given an indication of what’s in store for the company in the near future. Speaking at the 2025 Walmart Investment Community Meeting, Krishnamurthy said that the ecommerce major will look to fortify its quick commerce play over the course of 2025.

“We launched our quick commerce brand Flipkart Minutes about 9 months back with just under 100 stores. As of now, we are close to operating about 300 stores under Minutes and are targeting to take this dark close to 800 by the end of the ongoing year,” the CEO informed.

Speaking about Flipkart’s business as a whole, he said that the company has a user base of over 500 Mn across 95% of the pincodes in India. He claimed that the company’s product catalogue size has now expanded to above 200 Mn.

On the rationale behind deepening quick commerce play, Krishnamurthy emphasised that, in India, the affluent consumer segment in the top 30-40 cities of the country has developed a propensity to engage with ecommerce service providers with a focus on short delivery timelines, convenience of transaction, and a wide array of products to choose from.

Everyone Wants A Piece Of Quick Commerce

Flipkart’s entry in the quick commerce segment came when Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart had already established themselves firmly in the space.

The market leader in the segment, Eternal’s Blinkit, was operating a network of 1,007 dark stores at the end of the December quarter. While it added 216 new stores during the quarter, it had plans to open more dark stores in smaller cities, a segment which has not been penetrated as much.

On similar lines, Zepto claimed to be operating a network of 700 dark stores at the end of 2024, while Instamart had a network of 705 stores at the end of the calendar year. All three players have been on a spree to add dark stores to their network for the last few months.

As such, Flipkart faces an uphill task. Despite the fierce competition, brokerage firm JP Morgan noted that Zepto’s this year was suggestive of a potential easing in competition intensity in the country’s quick commerce market.

In a research note released in March, the brokerage firm said that both Blinkit and Instamart added over 150 dark stores over the January-February period, while Zepto saw its dark store additions moderating.

Further, it must be noted that all three quick commerce majors are facing significant cash burn as they look to expand their reach.

While Blinkit posted an adjusted , Swiggy Instamart incurred a in the quarter. While the latest numbers for Zepto are not available, the IPO-bound startup posted a .

Besides, Big Basket, Amazon and JioMart are also trying to gain a share in the quick commerce market, further intensifying the competition in the space.

Despite this, quick commerce is one of the fastest growing sectors in India. The market is projected to reach a size of $9.95 Bn by 2029, clocking a 16.60% CAGR. Quick commerce accounted for over two-thirds of all online grocery orders in 2024.

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