What 2025 established was quick commerce’s centrality to India’s digital consumption story. But 2026 has begun with quick commerce making headlines for reasons beyond growth metrics. The year opened with coordinated strikes by gig workers across major delivery platforms, including Swiggy, Zomato, Blinkit and Zepto, demanding fairer wages, safer working conditions and a rethink of ultra-fast delivery timelines. After a first round of protests on Christmas Day that caused limited disruption, delivery partners escalated their agitation on New Year’s Eve, calling for a ban on 10-minute delivery models. In a letter to Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) argued that compressed delivery timelines encourage unsafe practices and are operationally unsustainable.
However, platforms have pushed back strongly against this narrative. Responding to reports around strike-related disruptions, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal, said that the protests were driven by a “very small fraction” of delivery partners and insisted that the broader ecosystem continues to function normally. Defending quick commerce, Goyal reiterated that ultra-fast delivery is a consumer choice rather than a coercive mandate, and that platforms are committed to improving safety, earnings transparency and working conditions even as demand for speed remains strong.
Even though a formal ban on 10-minute delivery appears unlikely, the agitation has once again revived a deeper debate around the model and exposed a more fragile fault line in the quick commerce story: its dependence on speed not just as a consumer hook, but as an advertising engine.
Over the past year, brands have increasingly treated quick commerce platforms less like delivery utilities and more like performance-led retail media channels, allocating meaningful budgets to sponsored listings, search ads and digital shelf takeovers. If delivery timelines slow or consumer behaviour shifts even marginally, the implications extend well beyond logistics. The more immediate business question now facing brands and media planners is what happens to advertiser visibility, engagement and ROI if the urgency that powers quick commerce traffic begins to soften?
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2025: The year retail media took over India’s ad playbook
Advertisers Shift Focus
For advertisers, a dilution, or even a theoretical ban, on 10-minute delivery would not break quick commerce as a media channel, but it would fundamentally change how brands show up and why they spend. Industry executives broadly agree that while speed acted as the ignition switch for quick commerce adoption, habit and replenishment are now driving repeat usage.
A significant share of quick commerce orders today comes from everyday essentials rather than last-minute panic purchases, indicating that advertiser visibility is no longer exclusively tied to moments of urgency.
Mandar Lande, CEO & Co-Founder of food delivery platform Waayu, said that a slowdown in 10-minute delivery would rebalance, rather than derail, advertiser outcomes. “For advertisers, the environment shifts from urgency-driven impulse monetisation to intent-driven retail presence. Advertising remains effective, but ROI becomes more dependent on category relevance, search visibility and repeat consumption rather than instant gratification.”
This recalibration is already influencing media strategy, experts told e4m. Impulse-heavy formats such as festive homepage takeovers, flash creatives and moment-based sponsorships are unlikely to disappear, but their dominance may soften. In their place, brands are expected to prioritise always-on retail media, focussing on search rankings, category ownership, basket-building formats and subscription nudges.
As Madhav Kasturia, Founder & CEO of Zippee, puts it, “Advertisers will not exit, but will reallocate. Today, a lot of ad spend is tied to urgency-driven moments. Late night, rain, weekends, New Year’s Eve. If those spikes flatten, brands shift budgets from impulse SKUs to planned replenishment categories. Impulse gives you velocity. Planned gives you repeat. Both monetise.”
Vijay Shenoy, Deputy Vice President, LS Digital Group, said speed triggered adoption, but habit is what’s driving retention today, noting that ultra-fast delivery was never meant to be the category’s only growth lever. “Over 65% of quick commerce orders now come from repeat essentials, not emergencies. That’s a sign the category is maturing from urgency to utility.” Shenoy also pushed back on the idea that advertiser visibility is inseparably tied to ultra-fast fulfilment. While ads served to in-the-moment shoppers tend to perform better, he argued that intent does not vanish if delivery timelines stretch. Instead, it evolves.
He added, “The retail advertising pie will continue to grow, but spends will be reallocated, from festive or occasion-driven bursts to always-on retail media focused on groceries, home essentials, beauty and health, which already form over 70% of quick commerce volumes.”
Impact On Vol, Dark Stores & Unit Economics
According to Keren Benjamin Dias, AVP, Brand Planning, Lead Capital Z, White Rivers Media, most advertisers will recalibrate their spends. Budgets may shift away from moment-led spikes such as snacks, alcohol and party foods towards essentials, replenishment cycles and value-led categories.
“It’s less about fireworks and more about infrastructure and measurability,” Dias said, adding that advertiser behaviour is moving from burst-heavy spending to a steadier, always-on presence. “Brands still want the shelf, but they’ll pay for consistency rather than chase adrenaline-fuelled moments.”
Experts suggest that while peak-driven surges may soften, underlying consumption remains intact. For advertisers, this translates into a shift in how value is extracted from retail media rather than a collapse in visibility.
As urgency fades, retail media exposure during peak hours may soften marginally, particularly for impulse-heavy categories tied to last-minute consumption. Conversion intensity for such SKUs could dip, while replenishment-led categories like groceries, household essentials, personal care and health will remain largely stable. The result is not lower intent, but a redistribution of it over longer time windows.
According to Lande this recalibration is likely to bring discipline to retail media pricing. “As impulse traffic reduces, peak CPMs come down, and always-on, performance-linked pricing becomes more prominent,” he said. Rather than exiting the channel, advertisers are expected to reallocate budgets, away from urgency premiums and towards sustained shelf visibility and repeat-purchase categories. While headline GMV growth may slow, the quality and consistency of engagement improves, making retail media less volatile and more accountable from an ROI standpoint.
The impact extends beyond media into dark store density and platform unit economics, experts shared. Quick delivery models historically required hyper-dense dark store networks to compress delivery timelines, often at the cost of efficiency, higher capex and rider stress. If 10-minute delivery becomes less viable, dark store density is expected to reduce through consolidation, as ultra-close proximity becomes less critical.
Alok Chawla, Founder of Kiko Live, stated that while platforms may see a dip in order counts initially, the impact on advertiser outcomes may be offset by changes in consumer behaviour. “Customers may increase their average order value since purchases will no longer be purely impulsive,” he said. “If advertising budgets are allocated properly and aligned with customer sentiment, there won’t be major issues with media visibility and ROI.” Chawla pointed out that his platform has long avoided exaggerated 10-minute delivery promises, focussing instead on under-30-minute fulfilment, with volumes remaining steady under a retailer-led quick commerce model.
Dias added that lower urgency inevitably leads to lower peak density, which puts immediate pressure on dark store economics. “The model thrives on fast, frequent turns. When that intensity softens, inefficiencies surface,” he explained that retail media today plays a role in subsidising these inefficiencies. “If conversion efficiency drops, that subsidy cannot stretch indefinitely,” he said. As a result, retail media pricing will need to become more grounded. “It will be less about paying for premium placement and more about proven outcomes. Inventory quality will matter more than sheer visibility.”
Industry executives have agreed that easing delivery pressure could allow platforms to consolidate dark stores, expand catchment areas and improve picker productivity. Fewer stores with better utilisation can even lift average order values, reduce fulfillment stress and improve cost per order.
Kasturia observed, dark stores exist to collapse distance, not merely to chase speed benchmarks. “If urgency reduces slightly, picking efficiency improves, rider stress comes down and unit economics improve,” he said.
Altogether, the debate around banning 10-minute delivery points to a deeper transition underway. It appears that quick commerce is moving from an era defined by speed and demand spikes to one shaped by habit, operational efficiency and sustained advertiser value.