How Flipkart Minutes became the company's redemption arc

Snigdha Sharma (0:00)

Every week, Kunal Gupta, the head of Flipkart Minutes, sits down with his whole team for a two-hour long catch-up meeting. And every week, he talks stock. Now, Minutes is the company's 10-minute delivery arm. And a category manager from the company told my colleague Nuhar that Gupta goes through data on SKU's step-by-step with the category managers and directors. He also said that he had never seen a senior vice president go through SKU's at that level before.

That kind of attention to detail is exactly how Gupta has turned Minutes into the hottest new quick commerce property in the country. And in the process, it has also made Minutes critical to Flipkart's growth strategy.

Minutes is flush with cash from its Walmart-backed parent and has built a network of about 1,000 fulfillment centers and dark stores across 130 cities and 8,000 pin codes. Actually, in the top 10 metros, it has even overtaken Swiggy Instamart and is catching up on order volumes as well. All of which is remarkable for a company that's only 2 years old.

The category manager also said that Minutes now brings in about 20-25% of Flipkart's business if you don't include electronics and mobiles. That's roughly 1200 crore rupees a month. And Minutes is only getting started. Numbers from Acurus Capital, a financial advisory, show that quick commerce is expected to stay India's fastest growing segment of retail market in 2026 It's growing at twice the rate of digital commerce overall. And that makes a huge difference for Flipkart. The mobiles, electronics and large appliances segment has driven the growth of online marketplaces for a long time. But that segment has now started maturing. And the next push has to come from new business lines like big commerce. So there's a lot riding on minutes. Because you see, Flipkart was already very late to the 10-minute delivery race, years behind the current market leaders. But with minutes, it has started to make amends.

Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from The Ken. I'm your host Rachel Varghese and every day of the week, my co-host Snigdha Sharma and I will bring you one new story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Monday, the 5th of October.

Karan Taurani is the vice president at Ellara Capital, a brokerage firm. He explained to Noha why minutes matters to Flipkart so much. He said, it is very important for Flipkart to succeed with minutes because incrementally, e-commerce growth will be driven by quick commerce as consumer expectations change towards shorter delivery times. You see, Flipkart grew into a major player because of the smartphone and fashion boom. But as soon as it started selling groceries, it struggled.

The platform claimed that it was overwhelmed by unexpectedly high order volumes, which strained its supply chain and app infrastructure. This strain eventually compelled a shutdown in 2022 so that it could catch up on fulfillment. So this time, Flipkart is not taking any chances with Minutes. The manager I mentioned before said that Minutes is expanding aggressively into tier 2 cities. They also said that Minutes is now in more than a hundred cities, when same time last year it was only in 30 to 35 cities. And in the metros, it covers about 80% of neighborhoods. Now, there is a method to the expansion. Minutes was actually struggling when Gupta, a Flipkart veteran, took over in November last year. Before Minutes, he had worked across the mobile, wholesale and fashion segments. The big problem at the time of Gupta's joining with Minutes was its selection. The range of brands on the platform. In fact, a senior executive told Noha that shoppers kept abandoning their guards because of the poor selection.

So Gupta fixed it. He added young D2C brands and expanded Minutes premium offerings to attract Gen Z consumers. For example, in the personal care category, Ghar Soaps, which is popular with younger cohorts of shoppers, now complement traditional brands from ITC and HUL. Blably Blue, a fragrance brand that has been trending and is only about a year old, is now headlining the online perfume shelf.

An inventory planning manager also told us that more drinks are being added to the platform, like Jimmy's cocktails and a lot of zero calorie drinks. Basically, Minutes is building up a selection that attracts customers who want both health and taste. The idea is to appeal to a demographic of 21 to 36 year olds. These are the consumers who spend a lot online, but immediately lose interest if the platform does not carry what is trending. And the plan seems to be working so far. The average order value has gone up from 300 rupees a year ago to around 500 For comparison, Blinkit's average order value by the way is 525 rupees and Instamarts is 691