# Vertical commerce platforms gain ground in India’s e-commerce market 2026-08-27T11:47:19+00:00 | Business & Economy | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet A new wave of vertical commerce platforms is emerging in India, choosing to focus on specific categories rather than the everything-store model of Amazon, Flipkart and quick commerce players. Platforms such as Slikk (fashion), Plazza (pharma) and Snabbit (home services) are betting on specialisation over breadth, according to a report by Brand Equity. Industry experts quoted in the report say the timing is right because horizontal commerce has already built the infrastructure and changed consumer expectations around convenience and speed. Arjun Vaidya, entrepreneur and investor, said that widespread adoption of horizontal commerce over the last 12 months has created space for verticals to emerge. Ayyappan R of FirstClub noted that speed is no longer a differentiator as everyone delivers in 10 minutes, leaving trust as the harder problem for specialist platforms to solve. The shift follows the D2C wave and quick commerce revolution, combining specialised discovery with the convenience consumers now expect. FirstClub is building around quality-led curation with ingredient standards, while fashion platform ZILO argues the category cannot be treated as just another section on a broad platform. ## Indian Opinion Analysis The return of vertical commerce mirrors the strategy Nykaa and 1mg deployed a decade ago in beauty and healthcare, respectively, both of which went on to become publicly listed companies. The difference now is that quick commerce has normalised 10-minute delivery across 30+ Indian cities, creating a fulfillment backbone that vertical players can lease rather than build from scratch. The real test is whether specialist platforms can achieve unit economics that match horizontal players, which spread fixed costs across thousands of SKUs. Most of these ventures are early-stage, so the metric to watch is repeat purchase rates in their narrow categories, not gross merchandise value. The next signal will come when one of these platforms raises a Series B round at a valuation that implies category leadership, which would validate the thesis beyond the current founder commentary. ## Coverage - brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com Straight business trend piece with no government angle, presents industry views without editorialising. This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: 1mg, Amazon, FirstClub, Flipkart, Nykaa, Zilo Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/vertical-commerce-platforms-gain-ground-in-indias-e-commerce-market/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/vertical-commerce-platforms-gain-ground-in-indias-e-commerce-market/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/