Quick commerce sprints ahead but still a small slice for FMCG giants

Kolkata|Bengaluru: Quick commerce may have been the fastest-growing channel for consumer goods manufacturers for the past two fiscal years —led by the top seven to eight cities—yet its contribution to overall sales is still a modest 2-4% for most large companies, according to their latest disclosures.

Six of the largest companies — Hindustan Unilever, Britannia, AWL Agri Business (formerly Adani Wilmar), Dabur, Tata Consumer Products and Marico — posted cumulative quick commerce sales of over Rs 4,400 crore in FY25. Most of them shared the percentage contribution of quick commerce to overall sales for the first time in recent earnings calls.

Demand Expanding at 50-100%
Industry executives said this indicates the exact scale of the shift of consumption in large cities from kiranas and modern trade to the newer channel.


In FY25, quick commerce sales led by Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, Zepto and BigBasket have grown at 50-100% year-on-year for most of the large fastmoving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. The platform is fast expanding to new locations.

For HUL, quick commerce accounted for 2% of business, translating to Rs 1,214 crore in FY25. For Britannia, it was about 4% (Rs 675 crore), 7% of Tata Consumer Products’ domestic sales (Rs 900 crore) and 3% for Marico (Rs 244 crore). Company and industry executives said it accounted for 4% at Dabur (Rs 500 crore). Unlisted Parle Products also had a 4% share from quick commerce, they said. The company is yet to file financials for FY25 with the Registrar of Companies.

Quick commerce revenue in FY25 has grown to Rs 900 crore, having doubled over the previous fiscal, said Angshu Mallick, chief executive of AWL Agri Business, India’s largest packaged edible oil company.

“Quick commerce business has grown at 100% last fiscal as the platforms added several new towns,” he told ET. “They have made life simple for consumers by giving them ease of buying at no extra cost with price comparison of the full range, which is not possible with next-door grocers.”

Companies such as HUL and AWL Agri Business said in their earnings calls that margins are better in ecommerce and, more specifically, quick commerce due to the higher share of premium products sold through these platforms. However, there might be an increased cost on sales promotion to ensure products feature high up on the list during searches on the quick commerce apps, AWL Agri said. Quick commerce has been gaining share in the top eight to 10 cities at the cost of general trade and modern retail, according to companies and the latest data from researcher NielsenIQ.