Walmart-backed Flipkart Minutes has achieved a significant milestone by opening its 1,000th fulfilment centre this week in Gorakhpur, capping a rapid rollout that now spans more than 130 cities and 8,000 pincodes. According to Business Standard, the company is now planning to scale up to approximately 1,500 centres in the coming months, with 70 to 100 stores being added every month. Hemant Badri, senior vice president and head of supply chain at Flipkart Group, confirmed that the company is targeting equal distribution between metros and smaller cities, with 50% of new stores in tier I and metros, and 50% in tier II and tier III markets. This rapid scaling represents a significant escalation in the quick commerce race as the company steps up competition with Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart.
The company's expansion strategy is anchored in Flipkart's 250 million annual active users, with executives emphasizing that customer familiarity with the core platform is translating into faster adoption of Minutes. As reported by Business Standard, order volumes have grown fivefold over the past year and business in Tier-II and Tier-III cities has grown 42-fold from a year earlier. The strategy positions Minutes around value and ecosystem leverage rather than pure convenience, with executives stating the larger objective is to "solve for value grocery for India." This approach is particularly effective in smaller markets, where purchases are more planned with higher average order values and greater emphasis on savings compared to metros where users tend to place multiple orders daily for immediate needs.
The company's expansion strategy leverages lower operational costs in smaller cities to achieve faster profitability. As reported by Mint, a July 2025 report by Emkay Global found that non-metros have become economically viable for quick commerce due to lower rents and labour costs, allowing stores to break even at lower order volumes than in tier I markets. Flipkart Minutes is capitalizing on the fact that tier II and tier III consumers tend to place larger, value-driven orders and are more inclined towards weekly stock-up missions than multiple daily purchases. The company has built an 'Extra Saver' proposition around larger baskets, with staples such as atta, pulses and edible oil accounting for a larger share of demand due to bigger family sizes. Over the past year, the company expanded into more than 90 new cities including Ambala, Bokaro, Darbhanga and Jorhat, highlighting increasing adoption beyond major metropolitan areas.
According to market research firm Datum Intelligence, Blinkit leads India's quick commerce market with a 47% share, followed by Zepto at 24% and Swiggy Instamart at 22%, while other players including BigBasket and Flipkart Minutes account for the remaining 6%. As reported by Business Standard, Jefferies estimates suggest the gap between market leaders and challengers remains significant: Blinkit processed 917 million orders in FY26 through 2,243 dark stores across more than 200 cities, compared with Zepto's 640 million orders from 1,139 dark stores in 66 cities and Instamart's 412 million orders from 1,143 dark stores across 129 cities. However, analysts believe the opportunity in smaller cities remains largely untapped, with LKP Securities' Sandeep Abhange noting that tier II-plus cities already contribute 60-65% of online consumption.
The company's strategy positions it to capitalize on India's evolving quick commerce landscape, where the service is evolving beyond metropolitan convenience into a broader retail channel. According to Business Standard, Flipkart Minutes works with nearly 500 direct-to-consumer brands and has connected more than 3,000 farmers to consumers through its Samarth Krishi programme. The company has also doubled its electric-vehicle fleet over the past year, with EVs accounting for more than 10% of deliveries. Kunal Gupta, senior vice-president and head of Flipkart Minutes, emphasized that customers are not just ordering more but ordering differently, with demand spreading across multiple categories. The company's advantages include its large customer base and nearly two decades of data on Indian shopping behaviour, along with deep understanding of Indian consumer purchase patterns, value-seeking behavior, and category preferences across different segments. Recent leadership appointments include Goda Ramkumar as Vice President, Data Science and AI Solutions, Mohan Palisetti as Vice President, Fintech and Payments Engineering, and Nitesh Jain as Distinguished Architect, aimed at strengthening AI and data science capabilities across Flipkart's ecosystem.
