Quick Commerce

About Quick Commerce

What is quick commerce?

The supply chain disruption due to Covid-19 pandemic led to the emergence of a q-commerce-- a unique business model where the delivery of goods and services is done within 10-30 minutes of ordering.

Called interchangeably with ‘on-demand delivery’, it tends to focus on the micro to smaller quantities of goods ranging from groceries, stationeries to over-the-counter medicines. The sellers have now shifted their focus from traditional warehouses located on the outskirts to micro-warehouses located near the point of delivery. The ventures aim at restricting stocks to a focussed set of under 2,000 high-demand items.

Quick commerce does not seek to emulate a BigBazaar or Walmart store. It just wants to be the biggest kirana store in an urban colony via the dark store model. These are situated near apartment complexes and hold the requisite SKUs. A dark store typically caters to a radius of 2 km and the likes of Dunzo, Swiggy Instamart, Blinkit and Zepto currently have 20-30 such micro-fulfilment centres in the top 10 cities where their 10-20-minute delivery services are operational.

Q-commerce vs e-commerce

‘E-commerce’ refers to the online purchase, or sale, of a good or service, which can take 3-4 or longer days to deliver, whereas Q-commerce aims to deliver in a 30 minute-1 hour span.

What are the benefits of Quick Commerce?

Speed: Compared to a conventional retail outlet, q-commerce companies are able to get goods to customers in a fraction of the time.
Guaranteed availability of products: It isn’t just quicker delivery on offer, but items are more likely to be available, due to investment in AI and technologies that monitor demand and adjust inventory in real-time.
24-hour operation: Dark stores can operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year - they are not limited to set daily opening hours like brick and mortar retailers are.

By January 2022, Swiggy’s Instamart will deliver within 15 minutes via a network of dark stores located close to the bulk of its customers. Although a couple of quarters late to the party, Indian start-ups like Flipkart, Ola, Blinkit, BigBasket and Zepto joined the bandwagon in the past few months.

Latest Updates on Quick Commerce

Premium

Customers tipped delivery partners up to Rs 3 crore on Dunzo in 2022

A Chennai user ordered about Rs 45,000 worth of Ferrero Rocher chocolates from Dunzo in just three orders, the report shows

Updated On: 23 Dec 2022 | 7:20 AM IST

Premium

Swiggy Instamart eyeing 100 million user base in next 4-5 years

There are more than 500 brands and 5,000 products on the platform currently

Updated On: 20 Oct 2022 | 12:54 AM IST

Premium

Not enough delivery execs: Gig workers in high demand ahead of festivals

Companies are also giving better incentives such as instant payment throughout the year and consistent working capital flow for delivery partners

Updated On: 20 Sep 2022 | 3:36 PM IST

Premium

Zomato discontinues premium membership, aims to craft a new programme

The development comes at a time when Zomato acquired quick commerce company Blinkit on June 29 for Rs 4,447 crore in an all-stock deal

Updated On: 23 Aug 2022 | 1:16 AM IST

Premium

Online retail may hit Rs 4.9-trillion GMV this year: RedSeer report

In the India e-tailing GMV Index, there is a monthly growth comparison. In 2022, this was 60 per cent higher in April than April 2021

Updated On: 22 Jul 2022 | 7:10 AM IST

Premium

Minority stakes in Glance, Dunzo signal RIL's attempt for retail expansion

All told, RIL has now picked up minority stakes in retail online platform start-ups with founders leading the game

Updated On: 19 Feb 2022 | 6:08 AM IST

Premium

Quick deliveries a priority for only 8% of online grocery buyers: Survey

According to the survey, one in 10 households buying groceries online is placing over 10 orders a month via quick commerce apps

Updated On: 18 Feb 2022 | 12:46 AM IST

Premium

Dunzo pulls out all stops to be No.1 in quick commerce; bets on automation

Automation, Reliance deal to help it expand faster

Updated On: 16 Feb 2022 | 6:08 AM IST