Blinkit has emerged as India’s leading quick-commerce platform for product availability, recording an average in-stock rate of 94.4%, according to a new analysis by brokerage firm Bernstein. Flipkart Minutes ranked second at 88.7%, followed by Swiggy Instamart at 83.8% and Zepto at 82.5%. The findings highlight a growing shift in India’s quick-commerce competition from delivery speed alone toward the ability to consistently keep products available when customers place orders.
Bernstein’s analysis covered 150 stock-keeping units (SKUs) across grocery, fresh and non-grocery categories. Researchers tracked product availability over 10 days, across seven time slots each day, in at least three pincodes each in Mumbai, Gurugram and Bengaluru. The study found that Blinkit also experienced one of the smallest declines in availability as the day progressed, suggesting stronger inventory replenishment and demand-management capabilities.
Blinkit Tops Product Availability With 94.4% In-Stock Rate
Blinkit’s 94.4% average product availability puts it comfortably ahead of its major quick-commerce rivals.
The result is significant because customers using quick-commerce platforms generally expect products to be available immediately. A platform may promise delivery within 10 minutes, but that speed becomes irrelevant if the product a customer wants is unavailable.
Bernstein’s research therefore provides a different way of measuring quick-commerce performance.
Product availability comparison
| Platform | Average product availability |
|---|---|
| Blinkit | 94.4% |
| Flipkart Minutes | 88.7% |
| Swiggy Instamart | 83.8% |
| Zepto | 82.5% |
The gap between Blinkit and Zepto was nearly 12 percentage points, while Blinkit’s lead over Flipkart Minutes was 5.7 percentage points.
Flipkart Minutes Ranks Second
Flipkart Minutes recorded an 88.7% in-stock rate, putting it ahead of both Swiggy Instamart and Zepto.
The result adds to evidence that Flipkart’s rapid expansion is turning Minutes into a serious competitor in India’s quick-commerce market.
Flipkart Minutes has expanded significantly since its launch in 2024. In September, the company said the service had grown fourfold year-on-year and reached nearly 1,200 micro-fulfilment centres across more than 150 cities.
Flipkart is continuing to invest heavily in the service. The company said in October that Minutes would offer more than 77,000 products across over 1,400 categories in more than 150 cities during the 2026 festive season.
This combination of a broad catalogue and improving availability could allow Flipkart to compete more directly with Blinkit in both grocery and non-grocery categories.
Swiggy Instamart Sees the Sharpest Availability Decline
Swiggy Instamart recorded an average product availability rate of 83.8%, placing it third in Bernstein’s study.
More importantly, Instamart experienced the sharpest deterioration in availability during the day.
Bernstein found that Instamart’s product availability declined by 11% as the day progressed. Zepto’s availability declined by 6%, while Blinkit and Flipkart Minutes recorded declines of only 5% each.
The pattern suggests that inventory management becomes increasingly important during periods of sustained demand.
If popular products sell out faster than dark stores can replenish them, customers may either substitute another product or move to a competing platform.
Availability decline during the day
Swiggy Instamart: 11%
Zepto: 6%
Blinkit: 5%
Flipkart Minutes: 5%
Bernstein attributed Instamart’s larger decline to challenges related to demand forecasting and inventory replenishment.
Zepto Ranks Fourth
Zepto recorded an average in-stock rate of 82.5%, the lowest among the four platforms studied.
The company has historically built its proposition around speed, dense dark-store networks and a highly curated selection of products.
However, Bernstein’s findings suggest that maintaining high availability across a broad assortment can become increasingly difficult as quick-commerce companies expand their product ranges.
Zepto’s 6% decline in availability throughout the day was better than Instamart’s but still above the 5% recorded by Blinkit and Flipkart Minutes.
Why Product Availability Matters in Quick Commerce
Quick commerce initially competed primarily on delivery speed.
The industry’s basic promise was simple: customers could order groceries and everyday products and receive them within minutes.
As all major platforms have become faster, however, delivery time has become less of a differentiator.
A customer may not care whether an order arrives in 10 or 12 minutes if the platform has the exact product they need.
This makes availability, assortment and reliability increasingly important competitive factors.
The quick-commerce value proposition
Speed → How quickly the order arrives
Availability → Whether the desired product is in stock
Assortment → How many products customers can choose from
Price → How competitive the final bill is
Reliability → Whether the experience is consistently good
Platforms that perform well across all five dimensions can potentially generate stronger repeat usage.
Inventory Management Is Becoming a Competitive Advantage
Quick-commerce companies operate a fundamentally different supply-chain model from traditional e-commerce.
Instead of relying primarily on large central warehouses, they use networks of small fulfilment centres located close to customers.
These dark stores need to carry enough inventory to satisfy local demand without holding excessive stock.
That creates a difficult forecasting problem.
If a dark store holds too little inventory, popular products sell out. If it holds too much, the company risks wastage, particularly in fresh food and other perishable categories.
This makes demand forecasting and replenishment technology critical.
Blinkit’s relatively small 5% availability decline in Bernstein’s analysis suggests that its inventory system was able to maintain product availability more consistently across the study period.
Quick Commerce Is Moving Beyond Grocery
Another reason availability is becoming more important is the expansion of quick commerce beyond traditional grocery.
Platforms increasingly offer electronics, beauty products, personal care items, household goods, stationery and other non-grocery products.
The broader the catalogue becomes, the harder it is to maintain high availability across thousands of individual SKUs.
Flipkart Minutes has a particular advantage in this area because it can draw on Flipkart’s existing e-commerce assortment and supply-chain capabilities.
The company said its festive-season offering would include more than 77,000 products across over 1,400 categories.
This suggests that quick commerce is increasingly competing not only with other instant-delivery platforms but also with conventional e-commerce.
Blinkit’s Lead Extends Beyond Availability
Blinkit’s strong product availability comes as the platform continues to maintain a leading position in India’s quick-commerce market.
Earlier industry analyses have also highlighted Blinkit’s large dark-store network and customer base.
In August, CLSA’s mapping of India’s top cities showed Blinkit leading its peers in dark-store presence, while Flipkart Minutes had overtaken Swiggy Instamart in dark-store count and pincode coverage across the top 10 cities.
Bernstein’s latest findings therefore provide another indicator of Blinkit’s operational strength.
The company is not simply maintaining a large network; it is also attempting to ensure that customers can actually find the products they want within those locations.
Flipkart Minutes Is Closing the Gap
Flipkart’s progress is particularly noteworthy because Minutes is a relatively young entrant compared with Blinkit, Zepto and Instamart.
The service has expanded rapidly, reaching nearly 1,200 micro-fulfilment centres across more than 150 cities by September. Flipkart also reported fourfold year-on-year growth.
The company is using its wider e-commerce infrastructure as an advantage.
That could become increasingly important as consumers begin using quick commerce for products beyond groceries.
Flipkart Minutes’ second-place position in Bernstein’s availability study indicates that its operational expansion is beginning to translate into stronger service reliability.
The Battle Is Shifting From Speed to Reliability
India’s quick-commerce market is entering a more mature phase.
When the industry was smaller, adding dark stores and promising faster delivery were powerful ways to attract customers. Today, major players have extensive networks and increasingly similar delivery promises.
The next stage of competition could therefore centre on reliability and economics.
Platforms will need to ensure that customers repeatedly find the products they want, while controlling inventory costs, delivery expenses and dark-store utilisation.
This could make supply-chain technology just as important as consumer-facing features.
Dark Stores Are Becoming More Important
India’s five largest quick-commerce platforms were already operating around 6,500 dark stores by July, according to an earlier Bernstein analysis. That report found that the market was increasingly adding stores in areas that already had coverage rather than simply expanding into completely new locations.
This means the industry’s focus is gradually shifting from geographic expansion toward increasing order density and capturing more demand within existing markets.
In such an environment, product availability becomes even more important.
A dark store that receives a large number of orders but frequently runs out of popular products may not deliver the expected economic benefits.
What This Means for Consumers
For consumers, stronger competition could ultimately lead to better service.
If Blinkit, Flipkart Minutes, Instamart and Zepto all attempt to improve availability, customers could see fewer out-of-stock products, wider assortments and more reliable deliveries.
The competitive pressure could also push platforms to improve inventory prediction and reduce cancellations or substitutions.
However, maintaining availability can be expensive.
Companies need to balance the customer benefit of keeping products in stock against the cost of holding inventory across thousands of local fulfilment centres.
The Bigger Picture
Bernstein’s study suggests that India’s quick-commerce battle is entering a new phase. Delivery speed remains important, but it is increasingly becoming a baseline expectation rather than a unique advantage. Product availability is emerging as another critical measure of platform quality, and Blinkit’s 94.4% in-stock rate gives it a clear lead in the latest comparison.
Flipkart Minutes’ second-place ranking is equally significant because it shows how quickly the Walmart-backed platform is improving its operational capabilities. Its rapid expansion, broadening product catalogue and growing micro-fulfilment network could make it a stronger challenger to established players.
For Instamart and Zepto, the findings highlight the importance of improving inventory forecasting and replenishment. As quick commerce expands beyond groceries, the ability to keep a wide range of products consistently available could determine which platforms retain customers in an increasingly crowded market.
Looking Ahead
The next battleground for India’s quick-commerce companies is likely to be a combination of availability, assortment, pricing and profitability rather than delivery speed alone. Platforms will need to use better forecasting, automation and local inventory management to keep popular products in stock without creating excessive inventory costs.
Blinkit’s current lead gives it a strong operational advantage, but Flipkart Minutes’ rapid progress means the competitive gap could narrow. As more consumers use quick commerce for electronics, beauty, household products and other non-grocery categories, the companies that can combine fast delivery with consistently available products are likely to capture the greatest share of India’s next e-commerce growth phase.
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