Flipkart launches standalone Minutes app as quick-commerce scales

MUMBAI: Flipkart is putting its quick-commerce ambitions in a separate basket, launching a standalone beta app for Minutes as orders race past the million-a-day mark and competition heats up across India’s instant-delivery market.

The Minutes app is currently live on Google Play but remains available only to a limited group of users, with availability verified in select pockets of Delhi NCR. The platform offers groceries, fruits, gourmet products, kitchen staples and other daily essentials, with zero platform fees and free delivery on orders above Rs 99.

The separate app arrives as Minutes’ order volumes have surged. According to media reports, daily orders have climbed from roughly 390,000-400,000 in November 2025 to around 1.1-1.2 million currently — effectively tripling in less than a year.

Behind that jump is a rapidly expanding physical network. As of June, Minutes had 1,000 micro-fulfilment centres across 130 cities. Minutes head Kunal Gupta had indicated plans to take the network to 1,500 centres across 180 cities.

Brokerage firm UBS has put an even bigger number on the horizon, estimating that Minutes could add another 1,000 dark stores by mid-2027, potentially taking the network to around 2,000 stores.

The growth comes alongside an acceleration in Flipkart’s wider consumer base. Bernstein data showed the company’s monthly active users (MAUs) grew 15 per cent year on year in July 2026, compared with 3 per cent growth in the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal year.

The standalone interface gives Minutes more room to compete directly with Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart, as India’s quick-commerce players race to add dark stores, delivery capacity and more products to capture everyday purchases.

UBS estimates Minutes’ dark stores currently handle an average of 800-1,000 orders a day. Mature stores, defined as those operating for five to six months, process around 1,200-1,500 orders daily.

The brokerage estimates Minutes’ net order value, excluding mobile phones, at Rs 500-Rs 530, with metro cities accounting for around 60-65 per cent of demand. While gross margins are improving, UBS said they remain below those of Blinkit, underlining the economics Flipkart will have to navigate as the network gets larger.

Minutes is also emerging as part of a broader push by Flipkart into adjacent consumer businesses. Barely a day before the standalone app surfaced, the company began piloting Eat In, its food-delivery service, among employees in Bengaluru.

According to Moneycontrol, Flipkart plans to extend Eat In to all employees by September 15 before subsequently opening the service to consumers in Bengaluru. Minutes is expected to initially manage orders and fulfilment for the food-delivery operation.

For now, the separate Minutes app is less about adding another icon to a phone and more about giving a rapidly scaling business its own front door. With daily orders rising from around 400,000 in November 2025 to more than 1 million today, Flipkart is betting that speed and the infrastructure behind it can keep its quick-commerce cart moving.