Flipkart’s Quick Commerce Service ‘Minutes’ Goes Live In Parts Of Bengaluru

Ecommerce major Flipkart has made its quick commerce service live in parts of Bengaluru amid the increasing popularity of the segment.

Called ‘Flipkart Minutes’, the new offering has gone live in HSR (Hosur Sarjapura Road) Layout, Bellandur and a few other areas of the startup hub. With this, the quick commerce service has now been expanded beyond the company’s employees at its headquarters in the city. 

Available on the parent app, the service allows users to order groceries, electronics, smartphones and other products within 8-16 minutes. This is more or less in line with the delivery timelines offered by incumbents Zepto, Zomato’s Blinkit, and Swiggy Instamart. 

Inc42 has reached out to the Walmart-owned company for a comment on the development. The story will be updated on receiving a response. 

As per Moneycontrol, the company is currently offering free deliveries on all orders above INR 99 and is also levying a platform fee of INR 5 per order. 

Additionally, Flipkart reportedly claims that users will be free to cancel or refuse to collect their orders if the experience does not “meet expectations”. No other player in the quick commerce space offers this. This move is likely aimed at attracting and growing its user base.

In April, Flipkart appointed Hemant Badri, its senior vice president and group head of supply chain, as the head of its quick commerce vertical. The ecommerce juggernaut was also reportedly mulling to operate around 100 dark stores to charge up its quick commerce play during the festive season this year. 

Dark stores are mini warehouses from where deliveries are made.

“Given the way the market and consumer preferences have evolved, the service will first be stabilised in certain pockets, and then be scaled,” a source was quoted as saying by ET earlier. 

The primary driver behind Flipkart’s recent emphasis on quick commerce is its revenue potential. Additionally, there is also the threat of these platforms eating into the ecommerce pie. 

For context, Zomato, in its shareholder letter for the first quarter (Q1) of financial year 2024-25 (FY25), said that an increasing number of non-grocery ecommerce users are shifting to its quick commerce platform Blinkit. 

Flipkart’s quick commerce foray comes close on the heels of the company raising $1 Bn in a funding round, which saw big tech major Google pumping in $350 Mn. That said, the ecommerce giant continues to be a loss-making entity.

The operating revenue of Flipkart’s B2C arm rose 42% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 14,845.8 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23). Its loss declined 9% to INR 4,026.5 Cr during the year from INR 4,419.5 Cr in FY22.