By- Pranav Sharma
India’s relationship with indulgence is changing — and quick commerce is playing a much bigger role in that shift than most people realise. For years, desserts, cakes, chocolates, and sweet treats in India were largely occasion-led. They were associated with birthdays, festivals, celebrations, or weekends. Consumption was intentional and often planned. But today, platforms like Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, and Zepto are fundamentally changing not just how consumers buy indulgent products — but when, why, and how often they consume them.
The Rise of Real-Time Consumption
The rise of quick commerce has compressed the distance between craving and consumption to under 15 minutes. As a result, indulgence is increasingly shifting from planned behaviour to impulse-led, real-time consumption. According to Redseer Strategy Consultants, India’s quick commerce market is expected to scale from roughly $4 billion today to over $25 billion in GMV by 2030, driven by high-frequency and convenience-led purchases. The report also notes that India’s packaged food and beverage market is projected to cross $150 billion by 2030, with quick commerce emerging as one of the biggest growth drivers for food brands.
What Quick Commerce Is Changing
Quick commerce is not just changing delivery timelines — it is changing food behaviour itself. Increasingly, platforms are driving:
Late-night dessert and snacking occasions
Smaller but more frequent indulgence purchases
Instant, impulse-led consumption behaviour
Everyday access to cakes, chocolates, and desserts
Habit-led rather than occasion-led ordering
According to a recent analysis by Redseer, categories like chocolates, cakes, and desserts are rapidly shifting away from planned or gifting-led purchases toward craving-led, immediate consumption behaviour.
Impulse Is Becoming Habit
What’s especially interesting is how rapidly this behaviour is becoming mainstream. As of 2025, quick commerce had already crossed more than 30 million monthly users across 150+ Indian cities. Consumers spent nearly ₹64,000 crore on quick commerce platforms in FY25 alone, according to a report by CareEdge Ratings. Industry estimates suggest that this number could cross ₹2 lakh crore by FY28.
In many ways, indulgence itself is becoming more immediate, accessible, and habitual.
Why “Healthy Food” Alone Doesn’t Scale
This shift also exposes why many “healthy food” brands historically struggled to scale in India. Consumers may aspire to eat healthier, but daily food choices are usually driven by familiarity, comfort, convenience, and taste. Quick commerce amplifies this reality. When consumers open an app late at night or during a stressful workday, they are rarely searching for perfection. They are searching for emotional satisfaction and ease.
This is where the idea of “permissible indulgence” becomes increasingly relevant — products that allow consumers to indulge while feeling relatively more mindful about what they are consuming.
Convenience Is Becoming a Consumption Trigger
Traditionally, consumers bought indulgent products as part of a planned shopping trip. Today, quick commerce is changing that equation. Convenience is no longer just a fulfilment mechanism; it is becoming a trigger for consumption itself. The easier it becomes to access a product, the more likely it is to become part of everyday behaviour.
Some of the clearest examples of this shift can be seen in categories such as desserts, chocolates, cakes, and snacks, where purchase decisions are often influenced by mood, craving, or small moments of celebration. What may once have waited until the next grocery run can now be fulfilled almost instantly.
For brands, this creates a new challenge. While availability and visibility have become more important than ever, long-term success still depends on the fundamentals: product quality, taste, consistency, and consumer trust. Quick commerce may drive the first purchase, but it is the product experience that drives the second, third, and fourth.
The Future of Indulgence
Quick commerce is accelerating this transition faster than traditional retail ever could. And perhaps that is the biggest shift of all:
Indulgence in India is no longer occasional.
It is becoming immediate, everyday, and increasingly intentional.
The author is the Founder of Awsum.
Disclaimer: The views expressed are the author’s own and do not reflect the official policy or position of Financial Express.
