Quick vs E-Commerce: Amazon, Flipkart, Blinkit Gear Up for Speed, Discount Battle This Festive Season

With the festive season around the corner, e-commerce and quick commerce platforms are all ramped up in anticipation of increase in demand from customers.

The festive season in India, which kicks off from Raksha Bandhan and goes on till around New Year, is also the time when these platforms increase discounts and offers on their platforms to attract consumers.

Flipkart was the first e-commerce platform that came up with the concept of 'Big Billion Days' sale on October 6, 2014 during the festive seasons. The one day sale which offered wide variety of discounts, was marketed as the greatest sale of the country. The number of customers visiting the website was so much that the website crashed. The company claimed that they got "a billion hits" on their site and achieved the 24-hour sales target of $100mn in gross merchandise value in just 10 hours. Since then, with increasing customer interest and the growing demand for online shopping, festive season sale has become an unsaid norm that is practised by these platforms.

“This time of year presents a valuable opportunity for engaging with customers, as they actively seek out the best deals during major sales events. Offering attractive discounts and promotions will help drive additional traffic and enhance customer engagement across our platform,” says Lucky Goel, head of e-commerce, Pee Safe. 

E-commerce gross merchandise value (GMV) grew by 13 per cent during last year's festive period (September-December 2023). Further, it is expected to grow by at least 20 per cent this year, as per Redseer Strategy Consultants.

Read: Gig Hiring to Soar by 20 per cent This Festival Season, E-Commerce on the Forefront: Indeed

Additionally, quick commerce platforms are also seeing an increase in sales during the festive season. To give an example, during Rakhi, platforms such as Blinkit sold around 700 rakhis per minute. Taking to X, Albinder Dhindsa, CEO of Blinkit, mentioned, “We crossed all-time high orders in a day on Blinkit in a matter of minutes.” 

Battle for Festive Sales Supremacy: Dark stores on the Rise

The quick commerce platforms are now focusing on increasing their dark store count. In July, there were reports that Flipkart was planning to open around 100 dark stores ahead of its festive season sales. Similarly in its latest financial report, Blinkit highlighted that it will add 2,000 dark stores by 2026 from the current count of 639. Zepto too is eyeing to increase its dark store count to 700 by March 2025.

Additionally, the quick commerce platforms are expanding to Tier-II cities to capture the market during the festive season. Ahead of Onam, Blinkit opened its first store in Kochi. The company also onboarded local brands such as Milma Milk, Ajmi Puttu Podi and Eastern Masalas in the state to penetrate the local market.

Instamart also expanded to several new cities including Rajkot, Thrissur, Mangalore, Kanpur, Udaipur and Warangal.

The platforms are also increasing their stocks and workforce. Flipkart aims to create 1 lakh jobs, and the company has also launched 11 new fulfillment centers (FCs) across nine cities, bringing the total number of FCs in India to 83. Additionally, Meesho is also planning to create 8.5 lakh seasonal job opportunities.  

Highlighting the preparations being done by the e-commerce players, Chirag Taneja , co-founder & CEO , GoKwik  says, “As brands are already aware that the surge of orders will majorly be on COD, they are also working with enablers to enhance their RTO (return to origin) reduction strategy and seeking capabilities that help them tweak the strategy in real time.”

Another advantage for e-commerce platforms is that they have wider collection of electronics goods and fashion items. While quick commerce platforms are also trying to expand to electronic goods, its stock is limited for now. Currently, the quick commerce platforms mostly deliver electronic goods such as smartphones, kitchen appliances and Bluetooth speakers. However, storing electronic goods has its own challenges, with logistics being one of them. Speaking to Outlook Business earlier, Jeetu Bairathi, partner, Financial Due Diligence, BDO India said while it will still be okay for quick commerce platforms to sell smartphones, for bigger electronics, there might be logistical problems. "They will have to do three-wheeler tie-ups," said Bairathi.

Read: Not Against E-Commerce Firms, Want them to be Fair and Honest: Goyal

Quick Commerce Versus E-Commerce

Amid the expected surge in sales during the festive season, competition is set to intensify across e-commerce and quick commerce platforms. Experts suggest that while quick commerce platforms like Blinkit and Instamart will focus on speedy deliveries, e-commerce platforms will aim to attract customers with greater discounts.

“While quick commerce thrives on speed, primarily catering to products of which decision has already been made by the shopper, e-commerce platforms are emphasising variety, better discounts, seamless and personalised shopping journeys,” says Taneja.  

However, from the perspective of brands, some experts point out that all these platforms are important distribution channels. “For brands, it’s more important than ever to understand that all these options provide important distribution channels that need to be prioritised based on the products they offer and the purchasing habits of their consumers,” says Bhavik Vasa, founder, GetVantage.

Another trend that is being noticed is even the e-commerce platforms are trying to reduce their delivery timings. For Prime members, Amazon is trying to expand its same day delivery in India. Nykaa is also focusing on implementing faster deliveries and intends to deliver its items on top 12 cities on the same day or maximum by the next day.

During an analysts call, chief executive of Nykaa’s beauty business, Anchit Nayar said, “Speed has always been a priority to us and we took up faster deliveries as a bigger project coming out of the pandemic as we wanted to capitalise on the accelerated adoption of e-commerce."

Some e-commerce platforms such as Flipkart are even coming up with their own quick commerce arms such as 'Flipkart Minutes'. Amazon is also planning to come up with its quick commerce platform by 2025. Amid the intense competition, one thing that is prominent is that consumers prefer instant gratification or quicker delivery as we call it.

As per a JM Financial report, "Instant gratification without compromising on consumer experience is the most important aspect of Quick Commerce." Taking to X, some users have also mentioned how despite quick commerce platforms charging more, people prefer it for faster delivery over e-commerce platforms.

Similarly, quick commerce platforms with a $2.8bn market size, is expected to become a disruptive force, "poised to reshape the retail industry as we know it", as per Redseer Strategy Consultants.

As the battle to increase sales keep increasing, it will be interesting to see how the e-commerce and quick commerce platforms navigate their features to keep the interest of the customer.