Bengaluru: India’s e-commerce companies are rethinking the super-app strategy as quick commerce gains significance.
Flipkart is rolling out a standalone app for its quick-commerce business to select users, ahead of a wider launch expected before its festive-season sale. Swiggy had earlier launched a separate app for Instamart and its food delivery offerings Toing and Snacc. Eternal continues to operate Blinkit and District separately from Zomato. Do platforms really need a separate app for their offerings? Mint unpacks
Why are e-commerce companies giving quick commerce its own app?
Quick commerce has grown from being an extension of grocery delivery into a much larger business for several consumer companies. A separate app can provide a more focused experience, while the service can still remain accessible from the main app.
“Quick commerce is becoming an important part of the business for larger e-commerce players. So they are trying not to confuse quick-commerce users with other offerings that may not be relevant to them,” said Satish Meena, analyst at market research firm Datum Intelligence.
Swiggy, which has taken this separate-app approach with Instamart, said the standalone app would expand its reach while retaining the unified platform model.
Instamart accounted for nearly 17% of Swiggy’s operating revenue in FY26, up from 14% in the previous year. Blinkit generated 70% of Eternal’s operating revenue in FY26. Meanwhile, Flipkart Minutes, which launched two years ago, has grown 4x year-on-year and expanded to more than 1,200 dark stores across 150 cities.
Why has the super-app strategy struggled in India?
In India, there was a clear business case for the super-app model. Companies with multiple businesses could bring their customer bases together on one platform, giving them more opportunities to cross-sell and upsell.
The super-app idea was influenced by China, where WeChat and Alipay grew into platforms offering a wide range of services including shopping, payments, and ride-hailing.
Tata Digital’s Neu was launched in 2022 with a similar ambition, bringing together businesses such as BigBasket, Croma, Tata CLiQ, Tata 1mg and Westside under one platform.
Flipkart, Amazon India and Tata Neu were among the platforms classified as “aggregator super-apps”, bringing multiple financial and non-financial services under one platform, according to a 2024 report by Deloitte.
But the factors that helped super apps develop in China are different from those in India. Chinese platforms built many services within their own ecosystems, while India developed common digital infrastructure such as UPI and Aadhaar that allowed different companies to build services without needing to control the entire customer journey.
This made it easier for Indian consumers to move between specialized apps. A customer can use one app for food, another for quick commerce and another for payments without needing one company to provide all three.
The challenge for super apps is therefore not just getting consumers to download them, but giving them a reason to return frequently.
Tata Neu’s experience also highlights the challenge. Mint reported last year that downloads and monthly active users had slowed, with analysts questioning what would give consumers a reason to open Tata Neu multiple times a day.
Quick commerce was partly seen as a possible answer to that frequency problem. But the Flipkart and Swiggy moves suggest another possibility. Instead of making quick commerce the reason to open a super app, companies may also want to let it develop its own identity, according to Meena.
Can super apps and standalone apps coexist?
The shift does not necessarily mean companies are abandoning their main app.
Swiggy has retained Instamart on its main platform even after launching a standalone app, allowing it to retain the benefits of its broader ecosystem while giving quick commerce a separate destination. Swiggy has applied the same approach for its food-delivery offering Toing.
This could therefore be less about choosing between a super app and multiple apps, and more about using both depending on the service and its users, according to Meena.
China offers examples of this model, too. Companies such as Meituan and Alibaba have combined broad platforms with dedicated apps for specific use cases.
What does this mean for the future of e-commerce apps?
The growing importance of quick commerce could make the multi-app strategy more common across India’s consumer internet businesses.
For Flipkart, the main app could remain a broader shopping destination, while Minutes can focus on quick and immediate purchases.
The same logic could eventually apply to other large platforms and services. “Flipkart’s move could prompt other players such as Amazon to consider a separate app for Amazon Now, or at least create a dedicated widget that takes users directly to the service,” Meena said.
The shift is unlikely to mean the end of the super app. Instead, companies may be moving towards a model in which the ecosystem remains unified at the company level, while the consumer experience becomes more specialized at the app level.