India's quick commerce pushes deeper into higher-margin categories

Quick commerce platforms in India are expanding beyond groceries to higher-margin categories such as electronics, fashion, and home goods.

These now make up 20% to 25% of gross sales, up from under 10% two years ago.

Swiggy’s Instamart, Zepto, and Blinkit are increasing their focus on non-grocery items to improve margins and compete with larger ecommerce firms.

Instamart reported about 1,800 crore rupee (US$200.9 million) in gross sales from non-grocery goods in July-September.

Zepto saw monthly sales of 300 crore rupee (US$33.5 million) to 350 crore rupee (US$39 million).

Zepto introduced Super Mall for apparel and electronics. Instamart launched larger dark stores and ran a festive sale event to promote non-grocery items.

Quick commerce platforms are also seeing a rise in ad revenue from non-grocery brands. Ad revenue is now at 4% to 5% of gross order value.

🔗 Source: The Economic Times

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Non-grocery expansion faces unproven unit economics despite higher margins

Non-grocery categories now make up 20–25% of sales on quick commerce platforms, yet platforms share few profit metrics to judge the impact on the bottom line.
Gross margins rise on paper, yet returns, damage or last-mile delivery expenses (the final leg to the customer) for electronics or fashion can erase gains versus packaged groceries.
Zepto reportedly burns ₹250 crore a month 1 2. Dark-store operations (small, local fulfillment warehouses used for rapid delivery) run at about 7–10% of AOV (average order value), while variable delivery expenses eat into margins 1 2.
Uncertainty remains on whether non-grocery items build baskets the same way or force separate runs due to size or stock gaps.
Claims of higher margins stay unproven without contribution margins (revenue minus variable costs) after fulfillment for electronics versus groceries.

Ad-tech vendors and Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) brands can capture 4–5% of Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) in retail media

Quick commerce ad revenue totals ₹3,000–3,500 crore 3. Fee-based revenue from delivery charges, in-app placements, and commissions is on a 27% CAGR path to nearly $4 billion by 2028 4.
ROAS is 1.5–2x Meta or Google, with 3–8% conversion versus 1.5–3% there 3.
Non-grocery brands see ad packages at ₹2–9 lakh for three months, opening work for agencies focused on quick commerce ads 3.
Martech firms can build tools for the 10 second decision window where context drives buys within retail media (ads and sponsored listings within shopping apps) 3.
Sixty five million shoppers could be on these apps by 2030 3. Platforms target 70 plus cities, so early depth in category formats and performance benchmarks gives an edge 4.