Flipkart planning entry into quick commerce sector

WALMART-OWNED Flipkart is planning to enter the quick commercedeliverybusinesssoon,and will launch its services in around 20 cities in the next few months, according to people familiar with the matter. Once the services are rolledout,thee-commercemajor will directly compete with the likes of Zepto, Zomato’s Blinkit and Swiggy’s Instamart.

A company spokesperson did not explicitly confirm the development, but said that that over the past few months, it has made several investments to enhance its delivery capabilities, including adding same-day delivery in 20 cities, covering mobiles, essential items, electronics, home appliances, fashion, books and lifestyle products.

This will be Flipkart's second attempt to grow big in the quick commerce space after it decided to scale down its Flipkart Quick offering in the late 2022.

The development comes at a time when orders on quick commerce platforms have doubled over the last year, and now accounts for 40%–50% of India’s egrocery spend, a report by Bain & Companynoted,addingthatleading players in this space have improved unit economics through a

combination of scale, average order value growth, higher order density, and value-added fees.

While the quick commerce market is much smaller than the $60-billion e-commerce market in India, the majority of it is captured by the top three players Blinkit, Zepto and Instamart. Bain’s report says the e-commerce market in India is estimated to grow by 17%–20% between 2022-2023, which is slower than the 25%–30% historic growth rate.