Quick Commerce Big Growth Driver During Festive Season
Among other players, brand websites saw a 33 per cent rise in order volumes.
Chennai: Quick commerce platforms emerged as the biggest growth driver during the Diwali festive season, recording a 120 per cent y-o-y jump in order volumes. Increased presence of quick commerce and better supply chain brought down the average shipping time by 15 per cent this year against last year.
Quick commerce platforms saw 120 per cent growth in order volumes, according to the data of Unicommerce. Apart from Zepto, Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart, several players including BigBasket's BB Now, Flipkart Minutes, Dunzo Daily, and AmazonFresh have been heating up the quick commerce space.
These platforms have increased the supply chain efficiency of e-commerce companies. According to logistics platform, Shipway, orders were delivered faster this year, with average shipping times across the e-commerce sector during the 2025 festive season 15 per cent shorter than last year. This reflects enhanced supply chain readiness, smarter demand forecasting, and accelerated last-mile delivery, ensuring seamless and timely fulfilment even amid peak festive demand.
Among other players, brand websites saw a 33 per cent rise in order volumes. However, marketplaces remained the dominant channel, accounting for 38 per cent of total purchases and growing 8% y-o-y in order volumes.
Top-performing categories included FMCG, driven by healthy food products like fusion sweets, dry fruit combos and millet namkeens, home decor and furniture, beauty and wellness, and health and pharma.
On the payments front, prepaid orders grew 26 per cent, signalling stronger trust in digital transactions, while Cash-on-Delivery (COD) orders climbed 22 per cent in volume and 35 per cent in Gross Merchandise Value, indicating a shift toward higher-value COD purchases and deeper consumer confidence in e-commerce platforms.
Regionally, tier II cities led growth with a 28 per cent increase in orders, followed by tier I cities and metros at 24 per cent, and tier III towns at 23 per cent, reflecting widespread festive momentum across the country.
