For many Indians, a supermarket trip was once a small family ritual. A handwritten shopping list, a trolley that seemed enormous when you were eight, and the inevitable attempt to smuggle biscuits or chocolates into the basket. The outing was never just about groceries; it was about browsing, choosing, and occasionally negotiating with a parent. That ritual has not disappeared, but it has been interrupted by a new reflex: open an app, tap twice, wait ten minutes.
India’s quick commerce boom has rewritten what consumers expect from shopping itself. Speed, convenience and instant gratification now compete with price, assortment and even the pleasure of browsing a store. The question confronting retailers is no longer whether customers will shop online; it is whether retailer-owned online businesses can survive when platforms such as Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart become the default starting point for everyday purchases.
The pressure is visible in the country’s largest supermarket chain. Avenue Supermarts, which operates DMart, reportedly scaled back DMart Ready operations in seven cities during the June quarter as competition from quick commerce intensified. The online business had relied on scheduled deliveries and pickup services rather than the deep-discount, ultra-fast model favoured by quick commerce players. The company’s core business remains robust. For the quarter ended 30 June, Avenue Supermarts reported ₹18,343 crore in standalone revenue, up 15.1 per cent year-on-year, while net profit rose 12.8% to ₹936 crore and EBITDA margin improved marginally to 8.3 per cent. DMart added three stores, taking its network to 503 outlets. Yet management acknowledged that growth in mature metro stores had flattened, while non-metro locations continued to perform better.
If DMart illustrates the strain on a retailer-owned online model, Reliance Retail shows the opposite response: double down on digital scale. The company plans rapid expansion of JioMart and its dark-store network, targeting stronger unit economics and a doubling of operating EBITDA by FY28-29. In Q1 FY27, JioMart’s average daily orders surged 116 per cent, helping Reliance Retail reach 568 million transactions and 396 million registered customers, although the aggressive digital push compressed EBITDA margin by 80 basis points to 7.9 per cent. The contrasting strategies reveal a deeper truth: quick commerce is forcing every retailer to decide which channel should own the customer relationship. For brands, the answer is increasingly nuanced.
Archana Khosla Burman, co-founder of premium kids’ activewear brand ZONE, says quick commerce has accelerated a broader shift towards convenience-first shopping. “Today’s customers value speed, convenience and instant gratification as much as the product itself,” she says. Rather than treating quick commerce as a threat, ZONE sees it as ‘an evolution of consumer behaviour’ that reinforces the need to be present wherever customers choose to shop. That does not mean abandoning owned channels. Burman describes the brand’s website as the ‘cornerstone for building brand affinity, storytelling and a deeper customer relationship’, while third-party platforms drive discovery and accessibility. The channels, she argues, ‘complement each other’ rather than compete.
Aditi Murarka Agrawal, co-founder of home and lifestyle brand Nestasia, draws a similar distinction. Quick commerce has become an important discovery and purchase channel, she says, but it cannot replace a brand’s own digital ecosystem. “Our website continues to be where customers experience the brand in its entirety, from our complete assortment and design stories to personalised engagement and loyalty,” Agrawal explains.
The same logic extends beyond retail categories traditionally associated with quick commerce. Aman Verma, COO and co-founder of Primebook, notes that even in computing, consumers now expect a frictionless discovery and purchase journey across channels. Primebook’s direct platform remains critical for product education, software updates and after-sales support, while marketplaces and other commerce channels improve accessibility and reach.
What these brands are describing is not a channel war but a division of labour. That view is echoed by strategists watching consumer behaviour evolve in real time. Dhanya Mohan, Account Director, Strategy at TheSmallBigIdea, argues that quick commerce has built a thriving business around two things consumers increasingly lack: time and patience. Grocery and household essentials still account for around 85-90 per cent of quick-commerce gross merchandise value, but consumers are becoming comfortable ordering apparel, beauty products, electronics and even sports equipment through the same apps.
The shift, however, is not uniform. Higher-involvement categories move more slowly because consumers need time to compare options, read reviews and understand sizing or specifications. Mohan believes the most likely future is a blended journey: discovery through advertising, social media, marketplaces or physical stores, followed by purchase through the channel that best fits the urgency of the moment. “Quick commerce will win when speed and convenience matter most,” she says, “while e-commerce and offline retail will remain stronger for discovery, wider assortment and considered purchases.”
The real battleground, according to Pranav Agarwal, co-founder of SW Network, is customer ownership. Quick commerce offers unmatched reach and speed, but it also comes at a significant cost because the platforms command high margins. In categories where margins are already thin, sales may grow without a corresponding improvement in profitability. “The transaction may happen on a marketplace,” Agarwal says, “but long-term brand preference is built through direct customer relationships.” Owned platforms remain strategically important because they provide first-party data, enable personalised experiences, and create the foundation for long-term loyalty. This distinction between transaction and relationship may determine the next phase of India’s retail evolution.
For decades, retailers fought for the best physical locations. During the e-commerce boom, they fought for app downloads and website traffic. In the quick commerce era, they are fighting to avoid becoming invisible suppliers behind someone else’s interface. Consumers, meanwhile, are unlikely to choose one model exclusively. The weekly bulk shop, the desire to inspect fresh produce, and the serendipity of discovering a new product in a store still matter. But the forgotten packet of milk, the last-minute snack for guests, or the urgently needed charger increasingly belongs to the 10-minute economy.
The danger for retailers is that the urgent purchase becomes the habitual purchase. Once a consumer reflexively opens Blinkit or Zepto for everyday needs, the retailer’s own app risks becoming a rarely visited utility rather than a destination. That is why even brands embracing quick commerce continue to invest heavily in their owned ecosystems. The website or app is no longer just a sales channel; it is the place where brands tell their story, collect customer insights, run loyalty programmes and maintain a direct relationship that is not mediated by a marketplace algorithm. The future of Indian retail, then, is unlikely to be quick commerce versus e-commerce versus stores. It is more likely to be a layered ecosystem in which each channel serves a different consumer need: stores for experience and bulk buying, owned digital platforms for relationship and loyalty, and quick commerce for immediacy. The supermarket trolley has not been abandoned. It is simply no longer the only basket that matters. The real contest begins after the consumer reaches for their phone.
