Indian brands are increasing their advertising budgets on quick-commerce platforms by around 25-35% ahead of the 2026 festive season, as companies look to capture consumers closer to the point of purchase. FMCG, beauty, personal care and gifting categories are expected to account for as much as 70% of quick-commerce advertising activity, reflecting the growing importance of commerce-led media in India’s festive marketing cycle.
The increase comes as quick-commerce platforms such as Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart become more than delivery channels. They are increasingly functioning as retail-media platforms where brands can pay for visibility, product discovery and conversion. The shift is particularly important during the festive period, when consumers are expected to spend more on food, beverages, beauty products, gifting, household items and convenience-led purchases. Industry data also points to a broader increase in consumer demand, with FMCG demand expected to grow 9-11% between August and November 2026.
Brands Increase Quick-Commerce Advertising Budgets
Brands are stepping up their quick-commerce advertising commitments as the festive shopping period approaches. The reported 25-35% increase reflects the growing belief that consumers are increasingly discovering products on commerce platforms and making purchase decisions within the same environment.
Quick-commerce advertising is particularly attractive because it can connect marketing exposure with actual transactions. A consumer searching for snacks, personal-care products or gifts can encounter sponsored listings or promotional placements and complete the purchase within minutes.
This gives quick-commerce advertising an advantage over traditional brand advertising when marketers are focused on measurable conversion.
Festive Quick-Commerce Advertising Snapshot
| Metric | 2026 Festive Season |
|---|---|
| Increase in brand ad budgets | 25-35% |
| Share of ad activity from FMCG, beauty and gifting | Up to 70% |
| Expected FMCG demand growth | 9-11% |
| Main advertising objective | Discovery + conversion |
| Key channels | Quick commerce, retail media, digital |
| Major festive period | August-November |
The spending increase is also taking place against a wider shift toward digital and retail media. Digital media accounted for nearly 46% of India’s total advertising expenditure in FY25, according to Crisil Intelligence data cited by Social Samosa.
FMCG, Beauty And Gifting Dominate Spending
FMCG, beauty and gifting products are among the categories best positioned to benefit from quick-commerce advertising because they combine relatively frequent purchases with strong festive demand.
For FMCG companies, quick commerce can provide immediate access to consumers purchasing snacks, beverages, packaged foods, personal-care products and household goods. Beauty brands can use the platforms to push cosmetics, skincare and grooming products, while gifting categories can benefit from impulse purchases and last-minute shopping.
Industry reporting indicates that food, beverage, beauty, personal care, household and gifting brands are among the major categories purchasing visibility on quick-commerce platforms during the festive period.
Categories Benefiting From Festive Quick Commerce
| Category | Festive Opportunity | Quick-Commerce Advantage |
|---|---|---|
| FMCG | Snacks, beverages, packaged foods | High-frequency purchases |
| Beauty | Skincare, cosmetics, grooming | Discovery and impulse buying |
| Personal care | Grooming and hygiene | Convenience |
| Gifting | Hampers, chocolates, festive products | Last-minute purchases |
| Household | Cleaning and home products | Immediate replenishment |
| Food & beverages | Festive consumption | Rapid delivery |
| Premium FMCG | Higher-value products | Visibility and convenience |
The category mix also reflects the changing nature of festive consumption. Consumers may remain price-conscious on routine purchases while spending more on products associated with celebrations, gifting and indulgence.
Quick Commerce Is Becoming A Retail-Media Business
The advertising opportunity for quick-commerce companies has grown alongside their core delivery businesses.
Platforms can sell sponsored listings, banners, search placements and other forms of promotional visibility to brands. This creates a high-margin advertising business on top of the underlying commerce operation.
The model resembles retail media used by large e-commerce companies, but quick commerce adds another element: immediacy.
A customer can see an advertisement, select the product and receive it shortly afterward. That makes the distance between advertising and purchase considerably shorter.
How Quick-Commerce Advertising Works
| Stage | Consumer Action |
|---|---|
| Discovery | Sees sponsored product or banner |
| Consideration | Opens product listing |
| Selection | Adds product to cart |
| Purchase | Completes transaction |
| Fulfilment | Receives product rapidly |
| Data feedback | Platform measures conversion |
This closed-loop structure is one reason brands are willing to increase spending despite higher competition for visibility.
Ad Rates And Platform Competition Are Rising
The increase in brand budgets comes at a time when quick-commerce platforms are also pushing advertisers to spend more.
In 2025, industry executives told The Economic Times that leading quick-commerce companies had increased ad rates by 40-50% in key festive categories. Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart were also expanding advertising products and packages aimed at brands and sellers.
The platforms have continued developing their advertising businesses as they seek higher-margin revenue streams.
Quick-Commerce Advertising Economics
| Factor | Impact On Brands |
|---|---|
| Higher ad rates | Raises customer-acquisition costs |
| More brands advertising | Increases competition |
| Sponsored placement | Improves product visibility |
| Search advertising | Targets high-intent consumers |
| Checkout placements | Encourages impulse purchases |
| Retail-media data | Improves targeting |
| Faster fulfilment | Connects advertising to conversion |
The challenge for brands is therefore not simply deciding whether to advertise, but determining how much to spend before incremental advertising returns begin to decline.
Brands Are Rethinking Their Quick-Commerce Strategy
The growing importance of quick-commerce advertising does not mean brands are abandoning other media channels.
Instead, marketers are increasingly separating brand-building activity from conversion-focused commerce spending.
Moneycontrol reported in August that major FMCG companies were increasing advertising expenditure while also attempting to build brand value outside quick-commerce platforms. Colgate-Palmolive India’s promotional expenditure rose 33% year over year to Rs 252 crore in the June quarter, while Marico increased ad spending by 25%.
Nestlé India, meanwhile, has increased the share of its advertising budget allocated to digital platforms from 33% in 2021 to 55%, according to the same report.
Selected FMCG Advertising Trends
| Company / Trend | Latest Data |
|---|---|
| Colgate-Palmolive India promotional expenditure | Rs 252 crore |
| Colgate YoY increase | 33% |
| Marico ad-spend increase | 25% |
| Nestlé India digital ad share | 55% |
| Nestlé India digital ad share in 2021 | 33% |
| Digital media share of India’s ad spend in FY25 | ~46% |
The figures show that the increase in quick-commerce spending is part of a larger migration toward measurable digital and commerce-led advertising.
Festive Demand Creates A Stronger Conversion Opportunity
The timing of the spending increase is important.
India’s festive consumption cycle now extends well beyond Diwali. Onam, Raksha Bandhan, Navratri, Dussehra and Diwali create multiple shopping occasions, followed by the wedding season.
Industry estimates suggest FMCG demand could increase 9-11% between August and November 2026. Improved purchasing power, tax relief and easier financing conditions are expected to support spending, although food inflation and other cost pressures could keep consumers selective.
2026 Festive Consumption Factors
| Factor | Expected Effect |
|---|---|
| Festive celebrations | Higher consumption |
| Gifting | Higher discretionary purchases |
| Premiumisation | Greater demand for higher-value products |
| Quick commerce | Faster and easier purchases |
| Tax relief | Potentially higher disposable income |
| Easier financing | Supports larger purchases |
| Food inflation | Could limit routine spending |
| Selective consumers | Greater focus on value |
This creates an attractive environment for brands that can combine festive relevance with immediate product availability.
Quick Commerce Benefits Premium Products
One of the most important changes in the category mix is the growing role of premium products.
Quick-commerce platforms can help consumers discover products that may not have traditionally been part of their regular grocery baskets. Premium snacks, imported foods, beauty products, personal-care products and gifting items can all benefit from better visibility.
Moneycontrol reported that quick commerce is becoming a major driver of growth for premium FMCG products, while brands are also facing greater competition from D2C companies.
This makes advertising particularly valuable for brands trying to move consumers toward higher-priced products.
Why Premium Products Matter
| Premiumisation Driver | Business Impact |
|---|---|
| Higher selling prices | Greater revenue per order |
| Better margins | Potentially higher profitability |
| Festive gifting | Stronger purchase intent |
| Product discovery | Creates new demand |
| Quick delivery | Encourages convenience-led purchases |
For quick-commerce platforms, premium categories can therefore improve both advertising demand and merchandise economics.
New Advertising Formats Expand Opportunities
Quick-commerce platforms are also introducing advertising formats designed to influence consumers at different stages of the shopping journey.
The Economic Times reported that platforms had introduced formats such as payment-window banners, while Flipkart Minutes had rolled out contextual advertising designed to target customers with relevant products.
These formats allow brands to move beyond simple sponsored search results.
Quick-Commerce Ad Formats
| Format | Primary Purpose |
|---|---|
| Sponsored search | Capture high-intent shoppers |
| Product placement | Improve visibility |
| Homepage banners | Build awareness |
| Category banners | Reach shoppers by interest |
| Checkout/payment ads | Drive impulse purchases |
| Contextual ads | Match products with shopper intent |
| Promotional campaigns | Boost festive sales |
The expansion of formats could increase the amount brands spend per campaign while giving platforms more ways to monetise traffic.
Smaller Brands Face A Bigger Cost Challenge
While large FMCG and beauty companies can absorb higher advertising costs, smaller D2C brands face a different calculation.
The Economic Times previously reported that some smaller brands were spending thousands of rupees a day on quick-commerce advertising while struggling to generate enough sales to justify the expense. The report also cited onboarding packages and minimum advertising commitments from some platforms.
This creates a potential disadvantage for emerging brands: increased competition for visibility can make it harder for smaller companies to secure prominent placement without increasing their marketing budgets.
Large Vs. Smaller Brands
| Factor | Large Brands | Smaller Brands |
|---|---|---|
| Advertising budget | Higher | More limited |
| Brand recognition | Established | Developing |
| Ability to absorb ad costs | Higher | Lower |
| Product range | Broad | Narrower |
| Data and targeting | More resources | Limited |
| Festive strategy | Multi-channel | Often more focused |
For smaller brands, the priority may therefore shift toward highly targeted campaigns rather than attempting to compete for visibility across every available placement.
Retail Media Becomes More Important
The rise of quick-commerce advertising is part of a broader expansion of retail media in India.
GroupM’s 2025 forecasts estimated that retail media could represent 13.2% of India’s total advertising expenditure, with the segment growing at a compound annual rate of 40% since 2019.
Retail media is attractive because platforms have direct information about consumer searches, browsing, product selection and purchases.
That data can allow brands to connect advertising more closely with commercial outcomes.
Retail Media Growth Indicators
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Retail media share of Indian ad spend forecast for 2025 | 13.2% |
| Retail media CAGR since 2019 | 40% |
| Overall Indian ad-market growth forecast for 2025 | 7% |
| Indian advertising market forecast for 2025 | Rs 1.64 lakh crore |
The growth rate shows why e-commerce and quick-commerce platforms are increasingly treating advertising as a strategic business rather than an additional revenue stream.
The Bigger Picture
The 25-35% increase in festive quick-commerce advertising budgets reflects a larger change in India’s marketing ecosystem. Brands are increasingly willing to spend where consumers are closest to making a purchase, while quick-commerce platforms are building increasingly sophisticated retail-media businesses around that behaviour.
FMCG, beauty and gifting categories are particularly well positioned because their products fit naturally into frequent, convenience-led and festive purchases. But higher ad rates and growing competition mean brands will need to measure incremental sales carefully rather than assuming that more visibility automatically produces better returns. The broader shift toward digital and retail media suggests that quick commerce is becoming an important part of the modern advertising funnel rather than simply another distribution channel.
Looking Ahead
The 2026 festive season is likely to accelerate the convergence of advertising and commerce in India. As brands increase spending and quick-commerce platforms expand their advertising products, the emphasis will increasingly move toward measurable outcomes such as product discovery, conversion, order frequency and customer acquisition. Categories with strong festive demand, including FMCG, beauty, personal care and gifting, are likely to remain among the largest beneficiaries.
The next challenge will be maintaining advertising efficiency as competition pushes up the cost of visibility. Large brands have the budgets to compete across multiple channels, while smaller D2C companies may need to focus on specific categories, cities and high-intent audiences. For quick-commerce platforms, the ability to deliver measurable sales while protecting consumer experience will determine whether festive advertising becomes a durable and high-margin business.
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