Flipkart Minutes hits 1.2 million daily orders, narrowing gap with quick-commerce leaders

Flipkart Minutes nears the top tier

Flipkart Minutes, the instant-delivery service from Walmart-owned Flipkart, is now handling between 1.1 million and 1.2 million orders per day, people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. That is nearly triple the roughly 390,000 to 400,000 daily orders the service recorded in November, and it brings Flipkart close to Swiggy's Instamart, which delivers about 1.4 million orders a day, according to the same report.

The milestone marks a sharp shift in a market that specialist quick-commerce firms have led since the pandemic.

A latecomer closes in

Quick commerce in India has been dominated by three players: Blinkit, which grew out of the online grocer Grofers; Swiggy's Instamart; and Zepto. Flipkart only entered the race in August 2024, making it a relative latecomer.

According to estimates from market research firm Datum Intelligence cited by TechCrunch, Blinkit remains far ahead with roughly 3.4 million to 3.6 million daily orders, followed by Zepto at about 2.4 million to 2.6 million. Instamart is the smallest of the three by order volume, and it is that third-place position Flipkart is now threatening.

Instamart still has substantial scale of its own. Earlier this month, Swiggy said the service has more than 14 million monthly transacting users and operates over 1,200 dark stores across more than 130 cities, with more than 45% of that store network now contribution-margin positive.

An aggressive warehouse buildout

Flipkart has fueled its growth by expanding delivery infrastructure at speed. Minutes now operates about 1,020 to 1,050 micro-fulfillment centers — small warehouses positioned close to customers to enable fast deliveries — up from 600 in January and about 340 a year ago, one source told TechCrunch. The company is adding roughly 100 such facilities per month and aims to have 1,500 by the end of 2026.

The e-commerce giant also holds an advantage the specialists lack: an enormous pool of customers it has already acquired over years and billions of dollars in spending. Satish Meena, an adviser at Datum Intelligence, told TechCrunch this gives Minutes a ready audience for faster deliveries.

"Flipkart is already a serious player," Meena said. "Once you open 1,000 dark stores and [are] doing a million orders per day, it's serious enough."

Customers returning and spending more

Engagement metrics are moving in Flipkart's favor. Between 65% and 70% of customers buying on Minutes each month are repeat buyers, and transactions per customer have climbed 50% to 60% compared with a year earlier, people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.

Average spend runs about ₹400 to ₹500 (roughly $4.20 to $5.20) per order, with fruits and vegetables, staples, dairy and meat among the fastest-growing categories. Flipkart is also widening its assortment of higher-end gourmet products, including organic and artisanal items, to capture more of that spending. Even as the network has expanded, average delivery times have fallen to about 11 minutes, from 13 minutes a year ago.

Amazon is making the same bet

Flipkart is not the only e-commerce incumbent chasing the specialists. Amazon has been scaling Amazon Now, its quick-commerce service, and during CEO Andy Jassy's visit to India in June the company said Now had become its fastest-growing business in the country, with orders doubling every quarter since launch. Amazon plans to take the service to more than 300 cities and build a network of more than 1,000 micro-fulfillment centers alongside larger facilities.

Analysts see the push as both offensive and defensive. In a recent report, Bernstein analysts noted that although India's broader consumption growth softened in July, the shift toward quick commerce and e-commerce continued, with quick-commerce platforms recording healthy growth in monthly active users. Meena argued that consumers used to instant delivery will not go back to slower alternatives for groceries: "Can you go back to scheduled delivery now in grocery? No," he said. "You will not go back."

TechCrunch reported that Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy, Zepto and Blinkit parent Eternal did not respond to requests for comment.

Why it matters

India's quick-commerce market has moved from pandemic-era novelty to a mainstream shopping channel, and the startups that built it now face two of the world's largest retailers attacking from positions of strength. Walmart, through Flipkart, is roughly matching Instamart's order volume barely two years after entering the market, threatening to break up the established three-player order at the top. Amazon is pursuing a parallel strategy, betting it can convert its existing customers to instant delivery as well. If Meena is right that shoppers will not return to scheduled grocery delivery, e-commerce platforms unable to deliver within minutes risk losing those transactions to specialists outright — which explains why both giants are racing to build thousands of local warehouses rather than risk being sidelined.