Quick Commerce Race Heats Up: Flipkart Minutes Eyes 1,500 Dark Stores, Amazon 300 Cities

The battle for India’s quick commerce market is heating up, with Amazon and Flipkart announcing aggressive expansion plans for their respective quick commerce businesses, Amazon Now and Flipkart Minutes.

Flipkart said it has launched 1,000 ‘micro-fulfilment centres’ for Minutes across 130 cities, servicing over 8,000 pincodes across the country.

It is now targeting to expand the network further to 1,500 centres across 180 cities over the next few months, Kunal Gupta, SVP and head of Flipkart Minutes, told ET.

In a statement, Flipkart said the quick commerce arm’s volume has grown over five-fold since the network expansion began, especially as it services both metro and non-metro cities across the country.

Flipkart Minutes had last reported having 750 dark stores in March. It has achieved the 1,000 centres milestone in under two years since the launch of Flipkart Minutes in August 2024.

Flipkart said Minutes is seeing stronger traction from Tier II & III cities as quick commerce adoption has broadened beyond daily grocery needs. It added 90 cities to its network over the year.

Owing to this, Flipkart said that Tier II & III markets under its network experienced a 42X growth in scale over just the past year, reflecting the allure of quick commerce beyond non-metro markets as a mainstream retail channel.

“Customers are not just ordering more; they are ordering differently. Average order value of fruits and vegetables increased by 30%, repeat purchases are up, and demand is spreading well beyond grocery into electronics, beauty, wellness, and lifestyle. Order volumes have grown 5X since last year,” Gupta said.

Further, Flipkart has credited Gen Z consumers for its exponential growth, as the cohort has adopted quick commerce as a high frequency shopping habit. Gen Z customers account for 40% of the platform’s user base, with their shopping carts expanding beyond groceries to segments like beauty, electronics, wellness, and lifestyle.

Flipkart Minutes expects its next phase of growth to come from deeper reach, wider selection, and greater accessibility.

Quick Commerce Battle Intensifies

Meanwhile, Amazon Now also announced plans to expand its fulfilment network to 300 cities, up from 100 cities it was targeting earlier this year.

Amazon Now is currently available to over 50 Mn customers in more than 15 metro and non-metro cities such as Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Amritsar, Kochi, among others.

Notably, Amazon launched Amazon Now last year, starting with Bengaluru. The company said that the quick commerce vertical’s orders have doubled every quarter since its launch, making it the fastest-growing ecommerce business unit in Amazon India’s history. Amazon has earmarked ₹2,800 Cr to strengthen its quick commerce arm.

The announcement comes at a time when Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is on an India visit. During the ecommerce giant’s Q1 earnings call, Jassy said that Amazon Now is clocking 25% MoM growth in orders in India.

The back-to-back expansion announcements signal a renewed battle between Amazon and Flipkart, reminiscent of their years-long fight for leadership in India’s ecommerce market.

At the heart of this is the rapidly growing Indian quick commerce market, which has moved beyond its original grocery-first model, despite concerns around profitability. Players are increasingly adding electronics, beauty products, home essentials, and general merchandise to raise basket sizes and increase order frequency.

Amazon Now and Flipkart Minutes compete with Eternal-owned Blinkit, IPO-bound Zepto, Swiggy’s Instamart, and BigBasket in the quick commerce arena.

The post Quick Commerce Race Heats Up: Flipkart Minutes Eyes 1,500 Dark Stores, Amazon 300 Cities appeared first on Inc42 Media.