As fast commerce becomes India’s next e-commerce battleground, Walmart-backed Flipkart mentioned Wednesday that its Minutes service has constructed a community of 1,000 micro-fulfillment facilities — small, strategically situated warehouses designed to allow deliveries in minutes — lower than two years after launch, a milestone Amazon can be concentrating on because it expands its fast-delivery enterprise within the South Asian nation.
Flipkart mentioned it plans to increase the community to 1,500 micro-fulfillment facilities by the tip of 2026, a fast buildout that will additional strengthen its place in India’s fiercely aggressive quick-commerce sector, the place Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, and Amazon are racing so as to add infrastructure and prospects.
Primarily based on present retailer counts and introduced enlargement plans, Flipkart might emerge as India’s second-largest quick-commerce community by micro-fulfillment heart depend, behind Blinkit, which operates 2,243 such facilities, in line with a current be aware by Jefferies. Rivals Zepto and Swiggy Instamart are additionally increasing their networks.
India has emerged as one of many world’s fastest-growing quick-commerce markets, with firms racing to construct networks that may ship the whole lot from groceries and wonder merchandise to electronics in minutes. Blinkit, owned by food-delivery firm Everlasting, stays the market chief, whereas Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, Flipkart, and Amazon are investing closely to increase their attain and win prospects.
The competitors has intensified in current months as Amazon accelerates the rollout of Amazon Now, which is presently accessible in additional than 15 cities and operates over 500 micro-fulfillment facilities. The corporate plans to increase the service to 100 cities with greater than 1,000 micro-fulfillment facilities whereas broadening its assortment past groceries into classes corresponding to attire, electronics, and residential merchandise.
The shift can be exhibiting up in buying patterns on Flipkart Minutes, which launched in August 2024. Demand is more and more coming from classes corresponding to electronics, magnificence, and private care merchandise quite than simply groceries, Kunal Gupta, head of Flipkart Minutes, advised TechCrunch. Orders on the platform have grown about 400% from a 12 months earlier, whereas buyer retention has elevated 20% year-over-year, he mentioned. Each figures come from the corporate and couldn’t be independently verified.
“What started as a method to fulfill on a regular basis necessities has advanced right into a basically new buying behavior for hundreds of thousands of Indians,” Gupta mentioned. “Prospects usually are not simply ordering extra; they’re ordering in another way.”
Flipkart mentioned it has expanded Minutes to greater than 130 cities and eight,000 postal codes, with progress more and more coming from smaller cities past India’s largest metropolitan areas. These markets recorded greater than 4,000% progress from a 12 months earlier, aided by enlargement into 90 new cities, in line with the corporate.
The pattern, Gupta mentioned, is seen within the tempo at which newly launched markets are maturing. He cited cities corresponding to Patna, Guwahati, and Siliguri as examples of the place new shops are ramping up sooner than anticipated, and described Lucknow as one among Flipkart Minutes’ best-performing markets regardless of the corporate not but protecting your complete metropolis with its community.
Amazon can be betting on demand exterior India’s largest cities. The corporate advised TechCrunch that 70% of recent Prime members come from smaller markets and that it stays on observe to double its Prime membership base from 2023 ranges by year-end. Amazon added that on a regular basis necessities now account for one in each two items shipped on Amazon.in, with Amazon Now growing buying frequency amongst prospects.
Gupta advised TechCrunch that Flipkart is seeing prospects use Minutes alongside its principal e-commerce platform quite than as a substitute for it, driving extra frequent purchases and serving to increase into classes corresponding to contemporary produce and day by day necessities. The corporate mentioned common order values for fruit and veggies rose 30% year-over-year.
Flipkart, Gupta mentioned, plans to proceed opening between 75 and 100 micro-fulfillment facilities a month whereas increasing into extra cities throughout the nation.
The fast enlargement by Flipkart and Amazon underscores how India has grow to be a testing floor for the following section of e-commerce, with firms racing to show fast commerce from a grocery-delivery service right into a broader buying platform. The nation already has greater than 5,500 darkish shops, in line with Bernstein, and trade analysts anticipate that quantity to rise to about 7,500 by 2030 as firms increase into smaller cities and widen their product choices.
“We are going to proceed to increase quickly, won’t decelerate after 1,000 shops as nicely, and we’re going all in,” Gupta mentioned.
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