SPEED & CONVENIENCE

QUICK COMMERCE PLAYERS SUCH AS BLINKIT, INSTAMART, AND ZEPTO ARE RESHAPING THE INDIAN RETAIL LANDSCAPE WITH ULTRA-FAST DELIVERIES, ALTERING THE WAY INDIANS SHOP. HOWEVER, THE COMPETITION IS FIERCE WITH EVERYONE VYING FOR DOMINANCE

- PALAK AGARWAL

THE SMARTPHONE'S ALARM sliced through your nightmare of that school morning when you found you had forgotten to buy the sketch pens you needed for art class. Your mother's tantrum, "How could you forget?" The teacher's scowl, your sinking heart.

Fast forward. Yesterday, while packing her schoolbag, your niece realised she had forgotten to get sketch pens. But her mother grabbed her smartphone, placed an order on a 10-minute delivery app, and the pens were at the doorstep before the school bus pulled up.

This is the promise of quick commerce-e-commerce on steroids, redefining convenience by letting us get stuff in less than 10 minutes. Delivery times could be longer during rush hour traffic or bad weather.

But consumers are lapping up quick commerce. Although the model failed elsewhere, it is projected to grow to $40 billion by 2030 in India. And that's not counting the imminent entry of Reliance, India's largest retailer.

First, a quick look at the players and the action.

At the heart of the buzz is Zepto, founded by Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra in 2021. Y-Combinator was an early backer. In 2024, Zepto raised $1.3 billion across multiple funding rounds, the most private funds raised by a start-up that year. Palicha claims Zepto's sales could soon surpass retail giant DMart, one of India's leading grocery chains since 2002 (2023-24 revenues ₹49,533 crore).

But Zepto is not the pioneer. That honour goes to Blinkit, the new avatar of Grofers created in December 2021. Six months later, Blinkit was acquired by food delivery app Zomato, a listed company. Zomato's rival Swiggy listed in November 2024, four years after launching Swiggy Instamart.