As 2025 draws to a close, India’s quick commerce giants stand armed and ready. Buoyed by proven demand and abundant capital, the year saw rivals expand rapidly to cater to India’s hunger for 10-minute deliveries. But as we step into 2026, what will be the key trends that will dominate this chatter next year?
Scale Is The Real Moat: The coming year will see quick commerce giants add another 2,000-2,500 new dark stores, targeting only markets with strong order density and easy warehousing. Analysts see 2026 as the last real window to build defensible scale, adding that players delaying infra capex will never catch up.
Swiggy Vs Zepto: Blinkit is unlikely to relinquish its lead in 2026, but the race for the second spot will intensify between Swiggy Instamart and Zepto. Amazon, with a strong logistics backbone, could become a big challenger if it matches speed and reliability. Customer retention, subscriptions and selective discounting will define this fierce contest.
The New GMV Engine: In 2026, non-grocery categories such as personal care, toys and small appliances are expected to replace groceries as the primary GMV driver. Higher margins and impulse demand will turn quick commerce into a lifestyle habit, with festivals only amplifying the trend.
Private Label Bet: Private labels will remain strategic but limited, contributing a mere 5–10% of the GMV for quick commerce giants. Companies will rather focus on low-loyalty niches like gifting and ready-to-eat meals to capture incremental spend and expand margins.
Vertical Consolidation: The upcoming year will also likely see vertical quick commerce players in fashion, premium grocery and babycare either grow into category leaders or get acquired. The next two years will see consolidation, with smaller startups juggling innovation, scale and tough unit economics.
But the real question is: who will scale without breaking the quick commerce maths? Let’s find out…
India’s streaming audience juggles multiple OTTs, scrolls endlessly, and still struggles to find engaging content. At the same time, smaller creators continue getting buried in a crowded ecosystem where visibility depends more on virality than quality.
A Creator-First Bet: Founded in 2025, Flick TV is building a creator-first microdrama platform that sits between OTT and social video. The startup focusses on high-quality, mobile-first content that blends professional production with a curated creator marketplace.
Creators can publish, monetise, and build audiences without being at the mercy of traditional social media algorithms, giving them more control over their work and revenue.
Making Curation Sharper: Flick TV uses its own recommendation engine that factors in behavioural signals and mood-based cues to reduce discovery fatigue and deliver more personalised content. By combining curated storytelling with a creator-friendly model, the platform aims to solve the twin problems of viewer fatigue and creator invisibility.
Microdrama Mania: The Delhi NCR-based startup is eyeing a piece of the growing microdrama segment, which is projected to become a $5 Bn opportunity in the next five years. With so much headroom, can Flick TV become India’s go-to destination for bingeable micro-stories?
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