Mumbai: Quick commerce continues to reshape how India shops, now accounting for 45% of all festive purchases and nearly two-thirds of online grocery orders, according to the newly released CPAS (Collaborative Performance Advertising Solutions) Playbook for Retail & Quick Commerce by WPP Media in collaboration with Meta. The report highlights the dramatic shift from planned buying to impulse, inspiration-driven purchases—fuelled by the rise of faster delivery, wider assortments, and high-intent digital discovery.
The Playbook draws on extensive consumer insights, brand performance data, retailer inputs, and Meta platform signals, woven together by WPP Media’s CPAS expertise. Adoption is surging across Tier 1 to Tier 3 cities, with smaller towns seeing annual growth of 8–9% in quick commerce usage.
Connecting Discovery to Real Sales
With 91% of internet users aware of quick commerce platforms—and over half having transacted in the week prior to the survey—brands are increasingly able to intercept demand at the moment it forms. While grocery remains the dominant category, fast-moving growth is visible across fashion, beauty, health products, and kitchen essentials. Notably, the Playbook highlights that fashion accessories and bags have surpassed ₹40 crore per month, more than doubling over six months.
The report underscores that consumers are collapsing the funnel—moving from inspiration to checkout within the same session. This shift demands connected, full-funnel strategies where discovery and conversion are tightly integrated.
Proven Impact Across Categories
CPAS, a Meta solution enabling brands and retail marketplaces to run performance-driven ads using retailer catalogues, is already proving its value across India’s quick commerce ecosystem:
Coca-Cola used CPAS to strengthen its sugar-free portfolio, achieving a 39% improvement in ROAS, 2.5x higher conversion rates, and 40% lower acquisition costs by reaching high-intent shoppers.
Britannia leveraged a full-funnel CPAS approach across key partners such as Blinkit, Swiggy, and Zepto. The brand achieved a 45% quarter-on-quarter reduction in Cost Per Purchase, and improved ROAS from 0.6 to 1.0, with several campaigns delivering up to 5x ROAS and 60% lower CPP.
Ashwin Padmanabhan, COO, South Asia at WPP Media, said, “The meteoric rise of quick commerce has compressed the purchase journey like never before. The CPAS framework helps brands bridge the final mile from discovery to verified sale through catalogue integration and real-time optimisation. We are already seeing ROAS as high as 2x in certain categories, proving the power of this model.”
Prasanth Kumar, CEO – South Asia at WPP Media, added, “India’s commerce landscape is undergoing its most significant transformation, shifting from a linear path to purchase to an instant, intent-driven ecosystem. The CPAS Playbook provides a clear blueprint for brands to seamlessly connect brand-building with conversion, helping them drive accountable, measurable outcomes at scale thus, redefining the future of retail advertising in India.”
Gaurav Jeet Singh, Director, Agencies and VC Partnerships (India) at Meta, said, “India is at the forefront of a global shift where discovery and commerce are converging in real time. With CPAS, we’re enabling brands to meet consumers at the moment of inspiration and carry that intent seamlessly to purchase. This Playbook gives marketers a clear roadmap to build connected, measurable, and scalable commerce journeys on Meta, helping them unlock growth in a marketplace that moves at the speed of culture.”
