Consumer behavior is getting faster
Editor’s note: Shammi Thakur is a research director at MarkNtel Advisors. He has more than 15 years of experience in strategic intelligence, forecasting and competitive analytics, leading global research mandates across consumer, technology and service-led sectors. His work focuses on translating evidence, behavioral signals and operating trends into practical guidance for insight teams and decision-makers. Find Thakur on LinkedIn.
Quick commerce in India has moved beyond the promise of faster delivery. It is reshaping the way consumers recognize a need, evaluate options and complete a purchase within the same short window of attention. The shopper journey that once unfolded across store visits, weekly grocery lists or next-day online orders is now compressed into a few taps on a mobile screen.
That compression matters for consumer insights teams because the distance between intent and action is shrinking. A consumer may notice an empty milk packet, a missing dinner ingredient, a snack craving or a personal care shortage and convert that need into an order almost immediately. The decision is not always planned, but it is not random either. It is shaped by urgency, habit, trust, app visibility and the belief that the product will arrive quickly enough to solve the need.
A structured 2025-30 assessment by MarkNtel Advisors captures the scale behind this behavioral acceleration as the India quick commerce market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of around 67% during the forecast period, i.e., 2025-30. For brands and insight leaders, the significance lies less in growth alone and more in what that growth reveals: Indian consumers are becoming more comfortable making high-frequency, low-friction purchases in moments that traditional tracking methods often miss.
India’s 10-minute shopper profile
The 10-minute shopper in India is not a single demographic group. The audience includes Gen Z consumers, young working professionals, students, dual-income households, urban families and late-night impulse buyers. Each group uses quick commerce differently, which means demographic profiling alone cannot explain the behavior.
Bain and Flipkart’s 2026 online shopping study indicates that India’s online shopper base reached around 290-300 million, with Gen Z accounting for 40% to 45% of e-retail shoppers. The same study notes that Tier 2+ cities contributed approximately half of incremental e-retail orders in 2025.
These indicators point to a shopper base that is younger, more mobile-first and increasingly comfortable using digital channels for routine purchases.
The strongest quick commerce use cases often emerge where density, time pressure and digital familiarity overlap. In large cities, working professionals may use the format for office snacks, forgotten essentials or evening household needs. Students and younger consumers may respond more strongly to impulse-led categories such as snacks, beverages, beauty and small electronics accessories. Urban families may rely on it for replenishment, baby essentials, fresh produce or last-minute kitchen requirements.
For consumer insights teams, the practical takeaway is clear: the “10-minute shopper” should be segmented by occasion, not only by age, income or location.
How immediate delivery changes the buying occasion
Quick commerce changes the nature of the buying occasion by reducing the cost of forgetting. A missing product no longer requires a store visit or a delayed e-commerce order. The consumer can correct the shortage almost instantly, which creates more frequent but smaller decision moments. That shift matters because planned behavior and urgent behavior rarely look the same. A shopper who compares brands carefully during a monthly stock-up may choose differently when dinner preparation is already underway.
A consumer loyal to a preferred snack brand may switch if another option appears first, offers faster availability or is bundled into a promotion. A beauty shopper may try a new product because the pack size feels low-risk and the app interface makes discovery effortless.
Recent operating signals show how quickly these moments are being operationalized. Swiggy’s Q4 FY26 shareholder update reported 112.6 million quick commerce orders, 13.3 million average monthly transacting users and 1,143 active dark stores at quarter-end. Reuters, citing Bain and Flipkart, also reported that quick commerce accounted for more than two-thirds of India’s e-grocery orders.
Indicators reinforce the need to study the occasion behind the order. The same basket value may represent emergency replenishment, convenience, indulgence, planned top-up or discovery. Without the occasion layer, the data explains what was purchased but not why the moment was converted.
Loyalty shift from traditional touchpoints to app-led choice
In India the quick commerce is also altering how loyalty is expressed. Traditional retail loyalty often develops through proximity, familiarity and repeated store visits. Traditional e-commerce loyalty is shaped by range, reviews, pricing, return confidence and delivery reliability. Quick commerce places more weight on speed, availability and first-screen visibility.
A shopper may still prefer a specific brand, but the final choice can change when the preferred item is unavailable, hidden below the fold or offered in an unsuitable pack size. Loyalty therefore becomes conditional rather than absolute. The more urgent the mission, the more likely the consumer is to prioritize convenience over preference.
Large platforms are responding to this shift. Amazon announced the expansion of Amazon Now to 100 cities across India, supported by more than 1,000 micro-fulfilment centers and a curated selection spanning groceries, personal care, fashion, beauty, baby products, pet supplies and healthcare supplements. Such developments show that rapid delivery is becoming a broader consumer expectation, not a niche convenience.
For brands, the insight challenge is no longer only understanding which brand is preferred. Stronger questions include:
- Will the shopper wait if the preferred brand is unavailable?
- Which substitute becomes acceptable under time pressure?
- Does the shopper search by brand, category or occasion?
- Does pack size affect urgency-led buying?
- Which product cues remain visible inside a small app tile?
These questions reveal where brand equity holds firm and where convenience weakens it.
Why the app screen now shapes brand choice
Product discovery now takes place in a more compressed digital environment, where the shopper may view only a small set of options before deciding. In that setting, visibility, image clarity, ranking, availability and offer placement can influence choice as strongly as brand preference.
For brands, the app tile now carries much of the responsibility once handled by packaging, shelf placement and in-store comparison. A recognizable pack, clear product name, relevant size and visible offer can determine whether a shopper pauses or scrolls past. In categories such as snacks, beverages, personal care and daily essentials, the first few visible options may shape the entire purchase decision.
This also changes how consumer insights teams should evaluate product performance. A product may not underperform because consumers reject it. It may underperform because it is difficult to notice, appears too late in the category page, lacks a clear use case or is unavailable during high-intent moments.
Studying app visibility alongside shopper motivation can therefore reveal whether the issue is brand preference, product fit or digital shelf execution.
Measuring intent at the moment of choice
Compressed buying journeys leave limited room for delayed recall. Need recognition, option comparison, order placement and product receipt can now occur within a narrow decision window, making it essential to capture the trigger while the context is still fresh.
Capturing the immediate trigger
Measurement needs to move closer to the purchase moment because urgency fades quickly in memory. Post-delivery micro-surveys, short mobile diaries and recent-order prompts can help capture whether the order was driven by shortage, convenience, craving, replacement or routine top-up.
Tracking the digital path-to-purchase
The app journey can reveal how intent turns into selection. Search terms, first-screen visibility, category navigation, product substitutions and reorder behavior can show whether the shopper actively chose a brand or accepted the most convenient available option.
Linking behavior with context
Behavioral data explains what was searched, selected, substituted and reordered. Contextual evidence explains why the order happened at that moment, while attitudinal feedback shows how the shopper interprets trust, preference, satisfaction and perceived value.
Understanding why the product won
A product may win the order because it is preferred, visible, discounted, available or simply suitable enough for the immediate need. Distinguishing between these reasons helps brands avoid overstating loyalty and better understand where app design, urgency and product availability influence choice.
Viewed together, these signals create a clearer picture of how intent forms in fast-moving purchase moments. They help distinguish between choices driven by loyalty, convenience, availability, visibility and urgency. For consumer insights teams, that distinction is essential because the product selected fastest is not always the product preferred most.
Measuring the say-do gap
Brands operating in fast-delivery environments need a measurement framework that reflects how decisions are actually made in the moment. Standard preference tracking remains useful, but it cannot fully explain why a shopper chooses one product when urgency, availability, app placement and delivery confidence are all influencing the decision at the same time.
Stronger approaches should combine shopper motivation, platform behavior and post-purchase interpretation. That helps insight teams understand whether the order was driven by genuine preference, immediate need, visible placement, acceptable substitution or trust in fulfillment.
The most useful indicators are therefore those that reveal not only what was purchased, but also why the decision converted in that moment:
Mission trigger: Shortage, craving, routine top-up, event need or convenience.
Brand resilience: Whether the shopper waits, switches, searches again or exits.
Visibility strength: Whether the product is noticed without active search.
Pack relevance: Whether the size suits immediate consumption or replenishment.
Price tolerance: Whether urgency increases willingness to pay.
Trust cues: Freshness, delivery reliability, replacement handling and refund confidence.
Taken together, the framework gives brands a clearer view of what sits behind each purchase decision. Product selection may be shaped by urgency, convenience, visibility or trust, not preference alone. Understanding that difference helps avoid overreading fast purchases as loyalty and underreading the influence of app placement or availability. It also supports more precise assortment decisions, stronger digital shelf planning and better alignment between consumer intent and product execution.
Changing shopping styles
Quick commerce in India is creating a faster, more compressed decision environment. Consumers are not simply buying products more quickly; they are making choices under different conditions, with fewer visible options, stronger urgency and higher dependence on platform cues. For consumer insights teams, the opportunity lies in studying the moment more precisely. Demographics explain who is buying, but occasions explain why the order happens.
Loyalty scores reveal stated attachment, but substitution behavior reveals what survives when speed matters. Platform data shows what was purchased, but contextual research explains why that product won the moment.
The 10-minute shopper is not less thoughtful. The shopper is operating inside a narrower decision window. Brands that understand that window will be better positioned to build stronger visibility, sharper product strategies and more realistic views of consumer intent in India’s fast-moving digital commerce environment.
References
Amazon Staff. “Amazon Now India: Ultra-Fast Delivery.” About Amazon India, January 2025.
Reuters. “India's Quick Commerce Sector Made Two-Thirds of All 2024 E-Retail Orders, Report Says.” March 27, 2025.
Sheth, Arpan, et al. ”How India Shops Online.” Brain & Company, April 2026.
Swiggy Limited. “Q4 FY2026 Shareholder Letter.” May 2026.