Quick Commerce Turns On The Ad Tap

Brands in FMCG, food, beauty and beverages space are expected to prioritise quick commerce ads over traditional digital channels in the next year

More than 70% of quick commerce orders in India are replenishment-led, and most major brands are attracted to the prospect of grabbing repeat users

India’s quick commerce players currently make INR 3,000–3,500 Cr a year from ads but this is expected to increase as reliance on quick deliveries increase

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While the last few years were about getting consumers hooked on 10-minute deliveries, India’s quick commerce industry has moved beyond speed. It’s all about advertising now.

Today, quick commerce platforms like Blinkit, Instamart and Zepto are building high-margin retail media businesses, pulling brands into bidding wars for visibility at the exact moment a purchase decision is made.

While seller commissions still account for the bulk of their revenues, roughly around 70%, advertising, including sponsored listings, homepage takeovers, search boosts and brand placements, contributes between 9% and 11%, and the share is rising rapidly.

What’s more interesting is that ad rates on quick commerce apps have climbed more than 40% in just a year, with premiums doubling during high-impact windows like festivals and major cricket tournaments.

This surge in ad rates is being driven by two things coming together — more shoppers on these apps and limited space for brands to stand out. As a result, companies are willing to pay a premium to be seen right at the moment a customer is ready to buy, something traditional ecommerce and social platforms still struggle to offer.

Bain’s How India Shops Online 2025 report reflects this shift. Categories such as beauty, personal care and snacking are growing faster than overall e-retail, and these are also the segments spending most aggressively on quick commerce ads.

Growth is expected to remain as adoption deepens in tier II and III cities, delivery networks expand, and instant fulfilment becomes mainstream.

But perhaps the most important pivot is strategic. Quick commerce companies are no longer optimising purely for GMV. They are moving decisively toward margin expansion, with advertising positioned as a core profit lever.

For brands in FMCG, D2C and beverages, where impulse and replenishment dominate, quick commerce is already tripling its share of digital ad budgets.

Agencies say many advertisers are allocating 15-20% of digital spends to quick commerce, treating it as a high-intent visibility layer rather than just another sales channel.

Inside Quick Commerce Ad War

On quick commerce apps, brands aren’t competing for leisurely browsing. They’re intercepting consumers mid-task. According to Devangshu Dutta, the founder and CEO of management consulting firm Third Eyesight, quick commerce advertising is retail media distilled to its most concentrated form.

“On quick commerce apps, brands aren’t just reaching consumers browsing online or walking through a store aisle. This is retail media compressed into a small form-factor on a mobile in a hyper-contextual moment,” he said. “Urgency is a defining constraint here.”

Unlike supermarket endcaps or ecommerce banners, quick commerce operates in a decision window measured in seconds.

“It’s not only about a brand’s budget but also about the audience’s ‘attention budget’,” Dutta said. The aim is simple — grab attention fast, make the product easy to recognise, and keep the offer clear within seconds. “Anything that needs cognitive effort becomes a liability.”

This is where quick commerce diverges from both social and traditional ecommerce. On Instagram, brands build desire. On Google, they capture intent. In quick commerce, intent already exists, but patience doesn’t.

Rupali Chavan, SVP & head of business at Mudramax, describes this as a shift from persuasion to utility. “Quick commerce advertising sits somewhere between retail media and moment-based marketing. What fundamentally changes is consumer intent density. Users open these apps with a clear, immediate need and a compressed decision window,” she said

But, not every category gains equally here.

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According to BCG, more than 70% of quick commerce orders in India are replenishment-led, which explains why FMCG staples, snacks, beverages, personal care, OTC healthcare and household essentials dominate ad spending.

“These categories naturally align with high-frequency, low-consideration purchases. They match the ‘top-up’ behaviour that defines quick commerce usage,” Chavan said.

Unlike broader ecommerce, quick commerce has a smaller advertiser base, and only a few categories fit naturally.

One of the biggest debates around quick commerce advertising is whether it genuinely creates new demand or simply shifts existing sales from marketplaces and D2C channels. The answer, however, isn’t straightforward.

“For brands with a strong recall, quick commerce may largely cannibalise other channels. But it also works as a defensive play by stopping customers from moving to rivals,” Dutta said.

Incremental sales usually show up in very specific moments — late-night or last-minute needs, small social gatherings, or when a shopper can’t find their preferred brand and switches instead. It also helps newer or challenger brands that lack strong offline distribution, as well as smaller pack sizes that encourage trial. In these situations, quick commerce doesn’t just shift demand, it creates new buying occasions.

RedSeer estimates that nearly 30-35% of quick commerce users now default to these apps for top-up and emergency purchases — occasions that previously didn’t exist or were deferred.

“Brands that treat quick commerce as a new occasion layer rather than a replacement channel tend to see more incremental gains,” Chavan said. Still, measurement remains immature.

“Good ROI is a fuzzy question. Platforms tout measurability, but the true performance difference between ad-driven incremental sales and organic growth isn’t always clear. Brands may be paying for transactions that would have happened anyway,” Dutta said.

Most platforms still rely heavily on last-click attribution. What’s missing is a robust view on long-term repeat uplift, cross-channel halo effects, and true incrementality. Some are experimenting with geo-holdout tests and cohort studies, but these aren’t standardised yet.

Platforms Turn The Monetisation Dial

As user adoption rises, platforms are rapidly upgrading their ad stacks. Swiggy and Zepto, for instance, are moving towards their own demand side platforms (DSPs). Sponsored listings are increasing, and organic visibility is shrinking.

This isn’t new — ecommerce and offline retail saw similar cycles. But, in quick commerce, the impact feels sharper because the format is tighter and faster.

“But as platforms scale their ad businesses to expand margins, ad load goes up and organic visibility declines. Consumers become banner-blind. Brands see diminishing returns. Fatigue hits on both sides,” Dutta said.

Already, agencies report sponsored slot saturation on leading platforms, pushing smaller brands into bidding wars without guaranteed visibility. Ad fatigue is also becoming visible.

Users open quick commerce apps several times a week. If ads slow the journey or feel intrusive, they risk hurting the very habit these platforms rely on.

Platforms are walking a fine line. At the same time, onboarding fees and minimum spends are raising entry barriers for new brands.

India’s quick commerce players currently make INR 3,000–3,500 Cr a year from ads. The industry expects 30–40% growth this year, largely from budgets shifting away from marketplaces.

Where Does Quick Commerce Go From Here?

In its current form, quick commerce remains largely conversion-led. The interface is built for speed and efficiency, not discovery. Storytelling is limited, and emotional connection is hard to build. But that doesn’t mean branding has no role to play. As Chavan points out, brand building doesn’t always require long narratives. Repeated exposure at moments of need can gradually build familiarity and mental availability.

As platforms begin experimenting with richer formats such as storefronts, contextual placements and curated collections, there is scope for light-touch brand building. Quick commerce may never replace TV or digital video, but it can reinforce brand presence right where purchase decisions are actually made.

India’s quick commerce sector is now entering its second act. The first was defined by logistics, speed and habit formation. The next is about monetisation, margin expansion and advertising sophistication.

With ad rates rising 30-50% on-year, onboarding thresholds climbing into lakhs, and brands reallocating meaningful portions of their digital budgets, quick commerce is fast becoming one of India’s most sought-after retail media channels. Quick commerce has moved well beyond groceries. It is steadily becoming the place where brands pay to be useful — right when consumers need them most.

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