India’s large ecommerce platforms are increasingly experimenting with businesses beyond online shopping as quick commerce changes consumer behaviour and competes for their users. Flipkart has expanded into quick commerce with Minutes and is testing food delivery, while it has also entered microdramas to increase engagement on its platform. Amazon, meanwhile, has expanded its quick-commerce offering and content proposition.
The moves come as quick commerce gains a larger share of active users. According to data from Datum Intelligence, quick-commerce platforms accounted for 16 per cent of monthly active users in CY26 year-to-date, while Amazon accounted for 20 per cent and Meesho 26 per cent. Amazon’s user share has fallen nine percentage points since CY22, compared with a four-point decline in its GMV share, Meena said.
“Ultimately, video as a product is becoming more important because the discovery is happening via videos now,” said Satish Meena, Founder, Datum Intelligence, referring to Flipkart’s microdrama push.
Flipkart’s microdrama offering, launched on its main app, is aimed at increasing the time users spend on the platform. The company has partnered with Pratilipi and Terribly Tiny Tales for the content initiative.
Meena said the content play could eventually create a new advertising opportunity for the platform. “If this scales up, if this sticks, it will increase engagement time and also maybe in future can be built into an advertising repertoire,” he said.
The strategy is not limited to content. Quick commerce is emerging as another way for traditional ecommerce companies to retain customers as grocery and other frequent-use categories migrate to faster-delivery platforms.
Meena said the companies are effectively testing multiple consumer propositions rather than betting everything on a single new category. “They don’t want to miss out any trend in which they think that we could have tested it at a maybe small scale,” he said.
The approach reflects a broader shift in ecommerce—from being primarily a destination for transactions to becoming a platform where consumers shop, watch and increasingly access multiple services.
Published on September 9, 2026
