Gen Z now ~40% of India's e-retail shoppers, driving social-led, UPI-first buying: Bain-Flipkart
The 'How India Shops Online 2025' report shows Gen Z commands 1.5x its GMV share, with 70% discovering products via social media and 80-85% on Instagram. Platform-agnostic shoppers (50% use 5+ apps) are scrolling 40% less while 90% pay via UPI, over-indexing on lifestyle, beauty and electronics.
What happened
Bain-Flipkart 'How India Shops Online 2025' report shows Gen Z now ~40% of e-retail shoppers, platform-agnostic, social-media-driven, UPI-first, and
Key facts
- 40% of e-retail shoppers
- 1.5x GMV share
- 50% use 5+ apps
- 70% social discovery
- 80-85% Instagram
- 40% less scrolling
- 90% UPI usage
Why this matters
With 50% of shoppers using 5+ apps, platform stickiness is eroding—pursue acquisitions or partnerships in social-commerce, creator-led discovery, and UPI rails to lock in Gen Z loyalty.
What to watch
- Meta/Instagram launching native checkout or storefront expansion in India
- Quick-commerce players adding beauty/lifestyle SKUs at scale
- Creator monetization or live-commerce GMV disclosures from Flipkart/Myntra/Meesho
- RBI/NPCI policy moves on UPI credit and merchant fees
- Festive-season GMV split by age cohort in next quarterly reports
- Reallocate marketing toward Instagram creators and live/short-video shoppable formats
- Compress discovery-to-checkout flow with AI personalization and one-tap UPI
- Prioritize lifestyle, beauty and electronics assortment and exclusives for Gen Z cohorts
- Pilot UPI-linked credit/BNPL and gamified loyalty to lift AOV and retention
- Build cross-app retargeting given low single-platform loyalty