Quick-commerce: The rise of a new consumer infrastructure

As India races towards becoming the world’s second-largest consumer market by 2030, quick commerce, or q-commerce, is emerging as more than just an urban convenience. It is now reshaping consumption, marketing, and business fundamentals and monetising value, becoming a mainstream engine of growth.

The sector’s Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) has surged from $1.5 billion in 2022 to nearly $7 billion in 2024. Growing at an expected annual rate of around 40% until 2030, q-commerce has become one of the fastest-growing consumer internet categories in the country. Today, this channel contributes nearly 10% of India’s $67 billion e-retail market, with e-grocery accounting for roughly 75% of its GMV. What’s striking is how quickly this growth has unfolded — the sector has achieved, in just three years, what traditional e-commerce took a decade to accomplish.

The implications are profound — not just for retail, but for how consumers behave, brands operate, and investors allocate capital in the years ahead.

Expanding categories and strengthening economics

At the heart of q-commerce’s momentum lies a structural shift in what it sells and how it scales. While groceries continue to dominate, non-food categories such as beauty and personal care, electronics, and fashion are accelerating rapidly. This diversification has turned it from a fulfilment model into a next-generation commerce ecosystem that caters to everyday needs.

With increasing penetration in high-frequency, non-food categories, q-commerce platforms are creating ecosystems that drive long-term engagement. Operationally, the ecosystem has shown remarkable efficiency. The number of dark stores grew by over 70% year-on-year in FY2025, while revenue per store increased by 25%.

Fee-based revenue — from delivery charges, in-app placements, and commissions — is projected to grow at a CAGR of 27%, touching nearly $4 billion by 2028. The backbone of this efficiency lies in AI-led logistics and inventory optimisation, which help control costs and improve margins.

Q-commerce platforms are now transitioning from rapid growth to financially resilient, unit-economics-driven models, thanks to a combination of operational scale and technology-enabled efficiency. This evolution signals a maturing phase. What began as a race to capture cities is now a race to build sustainable, profitable models that balance speed with scalability.

Shifting consumer behaviour and marketing playbooks

The biggest disruption q-commerce has brought isn’t just operational; it’s behavioural. Consumer habits are being reshaped in real time. Average order value (AOV) has grown nearly 40% between 2023 and 2025, driven by wider assortments and higher thresholds for free delivery.

Once consumers experience ‘under 20-minute delivery’, return to traditional e-commerce platforms is highly unlikely. That single behavioural truth explains the sector’s retention rates, which are significantly higher than traditional e-commerce.

Q-commerce has moved beyond the logic of convenience to become an expectation woven into daily life. It’s altering how people discover, select, and buy products, effectively creating a new paradigm for consumption.

This shift demands a recalibration from every stakeholder. Investors are rethinking valuations around profitability, while brands are rewriting their marketing blueprints for instant conversion. The rules of marketing are no longer about awareness and recall alone; they are about relevance, response, and real-time retailing.

The ecosystem rewired

The ripple effects of q-commerce extend far beyond its balance sheets. Investors, brands, platforms, and agencies are all adapting to its velocity and volatility.

From an investor’s lens, capital priorities are moving from ‘growth at all costs’ to financial discipline. Metrics like repeat purchase rates, contribution margins, and monetisation ratios now dominate valuations. Newer verticals, from fashion to online pharmacies, are drawing attention, supported by AI-driven predictive logistics and dynamic inventory systems. The platforms that combine speed with financial discipline and a defensible business model will be the ones to be tagged with higher value.

From a brand perspective, q-commerce demands a complete re-architecture of portfolios and marketing cycles. Pack sizes, SKUs, and pricing need to align with micro-consumption and impulse buying. Brands need to re-think and re-build product and marketing architectures that are fit for today’s q-commerce environment, as legacy approaches will not be able to compete.

Marketing itself is getting compressed. Campaign cycles that once ran weekly now demand real-time activation. Platforms are enabling brands to convert impressions to purchases within minutes, powered by AI-led merchandising that analyses micro-moments to dynamically optimise pricing, promotions, and assortments.

For platforms, sustainable scale depends on loyalty, profitability, and personalisation. The playbook includes optimising dark stores, expanding private labels, and integrating commerce media for monetisation.

Predictive stocking, intelligent zoning, and hyper-personalised recommendations are shaping how platforms evolve from delivery engines to orchestrators of commerce ecosystems. Leading platforms will gradually evolve from delivery engines into orchestrators of commerce ecosystems, balancing scale, profitability, and customer loyalty.

For agencies and enablers, q-commerce offers both opportunity and accountability. With growing marketing budgets for q-commerce, agencies must build campaigns for immediate impact. Real-time activation and data-driven personalisation are becoming the norm.

A beauty brand’s CPAS campaign, for instance, saw a 2.4X lift in purchases by spotlighting its hero SKU within a serum range. Similarly, a pet food brand expects 45% of its online sales to come via q-commerce platforms in the next two years — underscoring the channel’s strategic weight in sales planning.

The agencies that will thrive will be those which act as the link across brands, platforms, and consumers, enabling commerce in an era of convergence. Even product development is evolving.

One new instant-meal brand launched in collaboration with a leading q-commerce platform, featuring its range on the platform’s home and suggestion pages. The result: higher visibility and faster adoption than traditional OOH or digital advertising could deliver.

From speed to strategy

As instant fulfilment becomes a national expectation, q-commerce now operates in more than 70 Indian cities, with tier-II and III expansion emerging as the next growth wave. Sustainability mandates are also gaining ground, from biodegradable packaging to solar-powered dark stores and electric delivery fleets.

AI and agentic commerce are reshaping the backend, from predictive replenishment to autonomous shopping agents, making operations leaner and consumer experiences more seamless. But the larger point is strategic, not technological. Q-commerce isn’t an experiment anymore; it’s becoming a core layer of India’s consumer infrastructure.

Resilient, AI-led platforms must take precedence over scale-only metrics for investors. Brands must redesign products and marketing strategies for the instant economy. Platforms must also balance loyalty, profitability, and reach. Moreover, agencies must integrate data, commerce, and content to deliver frictionless customer experiences.

The race is no longer about who delivers fastest — it’s about who adapts fastest.

India’s next decade of consumption will be shaped not by the companies that sell the most, but by those that understand this shift most deeply. Q-commerce isn’t just a disruptor; it’s the new infrastructure of everyday life.

- Anshul Garg, managing partner and head, Publicis Commerce India.