Brands across multiple sectors are dramatically reshaping their digital advertising strategies, with quick commerce platforms emerging as the preferred destination for marketing budgets previously allocated to traditional e-commerce giants. Companies spanning food, wellness, and personal care categories report allocating up to half of their digital ad spend to platforms such as Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, and Zepto, driven by superior sales velocity and return on advertising investment.

Major Brand Budget Reallocations

Wellbeing Nutrition, the protein powder and supplements maker backed by Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), exemplifies this strategic shift. The company now dedicates 55% of its marketing budget to quick commerce, a substantial increase from 30% six months ago, according to founder Avnish Chhabria.

"We're tactically increasing spends on quick commerce as performance has improved meaningfully and the economics are more favourable," Chhabria explained. Wellbeing Nutrition's monthly sales have grown fivefold to ₹5 crore since July 2025, compared with the preceding six months.

Plum Goodness, a personal care brand backed by Unilever Ventures, has similarly adjusted its spending patterns based on performance metrics. Founder Shankar Prasad noted that quick commerce has been outperforming traditional e-commerce channels in recent months, leading to increased budget allocations despite intensifying competition for visibility among wellness and personal care brands.

Corporate Giants Follow Suit

Larger consumer goods companies are adopting similar strategies. Marico, parent company of Parachute and Saffola brands, reported that quick commerce contributed 3% to its India business in fiscal year 2025 (FY25). The company highlighted the channel's advantages, including faster feedback loops, shorter trend cycles, and exposure to niche, premium, and occasion-led products.

"The channel provides faster feedback loops, shorter trend cycles and exposure to niche, premium, and occasion-led ideas. This has encouraged us to move toward more agile innovations, build stronger pipelines aligned to emerging trends, and create formats suited specifically for this channel," a Marico spokesperson stated.

Dabur India's chief executive officer Mohit Malhotra announced plans to increase advertising expenditure across general and modern trade channels, including quick commerce, during the September-quarter earnings call. The company's December-quarter business update indicated that sales from e-commerce platforms, including quick commerce, are expected to grow in double digits.

Market Growth and Revenue Impact

The advertising revenue surge reflects the growing importance of quick commerce platforms in the retail media landscape. Quick-commerce ad spend has increased almost 40% to nearly $700 million, compared to about $500 million in the preceding six months, according to Siddharth Jhawar, country manager at ad-tech company Moloco.

Retail media generated nearly ₹25,000 crore in ad revenue in 2025, establishing itself as the fastest-growing advertising channel according to a WPP report. Quick-commerce players Blinkit, Zepto, and Instamart are scaling ad revenue at growth rates exceeding 100% year-on-year, though from smaller bases.

Superior Conversion Performance

The primary driver behind this budget reallocation is the significantly higher conversion rates achieved on quick commerce platforms compared to traditional e-commerce channels. Consumers typically arrive on these apps with high purchase intent and limited browsing time, resulting in quicker purchase decisions and immediate sales.

Chhabria noted that conversions on quick commerce platforms are at least 10-15% higher than other horizontal online commerce platforms, while offering better cost per acquisition rates. "Quick commerce is currently driving far better conversions at a cheaper cost per acquisition (CPA) rate, hence appearing to be a better return on investment," he explained.

Challenges and Market Limitations

Despite the positive performance metrics, quick commerce platforms face certain constraints. The limited audience reach compared to established marketplaces like Amazon India and Flipkart creates spending ceilings for brands. Additionally, the restricted product assortment suited for fast-moving goods limits the scope for product discovery.

"Since quick commerce has a limited audience compared to larger platforms, there's currently a ceiling on how much brands can spend on this channel. Moreover, the audience is largely needs-driven and hence scope for discovery of new products is larger on Amazon, for example," Chhabria observed.

Amazon India and Flipkart continue to dominate the retail media landscape, generating upwards of ₹14,000 crore in revenue in FY25. However, the rapid growth of quick commerce advertising suggests a fundamental shift in how brands approach digital marketing, with expectations that quick commerce ad spend share will double over the next 2-3 years as these platforms capture an increasingly larger portion of the e-commerce market.

Quick commerce platforms are moving away from aggressive 10-minute delivery marketing following government discussions focused on gig worker safety and working conditions. The shift represents a strategic pivot in how these platforms communicate their value proposition to customers while maintaining their core operational advantages.

Government Intervention Drives Industry Change

Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has held meetings with quick commerce and delivery firms over the past month, urging them to discontinue aggressive delivery branding to protect gig workers' rights. According to sources, major delivery aggregators have agreed to remove the 10-minute delivery branding and marketing following the government's intervention.

The discussions involved leading platforms and focused on key areas of concern:

Industry Expert Analysis

Karan Taurani, EVP at Elara Capital, characterizes the move as largely optics-driven rather than business-altering. "The removal of the 10-minute delivery catchline is largely optics-driven rather than business-altering. Quick commerce continues to be anchored in speed, convenience and proximity-led fulfilment, which remains structurally superior to horizontal e-commerce timelines," Taurani explained.

According to Taurani, dropping the tagline does not dilute the core quick commerce proposition. He noted that the 10-minute claim functioned more as marketing hyperbole than a contractual commitment, unlike historic guarantees such as Domino's "30 minutes or free" promise.

Operational Reality vs Marketing Claims

Ravi Saxena, Founder and CEO of Wonderchef, echoed similar sentiments, noting that 10-minute delivery has often been more of a marketing promise than an operational reality. He provided insights into actual delivery patterns:

Actual delivery timelines remain dynamic and influenced by multiple factors including dark store distance, traffic conditions, weather, and real-time rider availability. Platforms consistently prioritize rider safety over fixed delivery targets, with the new approach formalizing this operational reality.

Platform Branding Evolution

As part of this industry shift, Blinkit has revised its principal tagline from "10,000+ products delivered in 10 minutes" to "30,000+ products delivered at your doorstep." This change reflects the broader industry movement toward emphasizing product variety and convenience rather than specific time commitments.

Market Impact and Future Outlook

Taurani emphasized that competitive intensity in the segment remains unchanged, with execution, supply chain efficiency, and store density likely to separate winners as the channel matures. Platforms are being asked to refrain from projecting delivery timelines as hard promises rather than altering fundamental business operations.

With metro markets already exhibiting high awareness and habitual usage, analysts believe the branding reset could prove neutral to positive. The shift moves focus from headline speed claims to consistency, safety, and operational execution. Saxena added that measures improving gig worker safety and reducing overwork should be welcomed, emphasizing that small increases in delivery time do not compromise convenience or business outcomes.