Much ado about quick deliveries

Among the most happening news last week was the latest fund raising of Zepto, a Quick Commerce company. In all, the company has raised over USD 1 Bn (INR 8,200 Cr) in 12 months and is currently valued at USD 5 Bn (INR 60,000 Crores). And what business is Zepto in – as we all know, a term popularly addressed as “Quick Commerce”, a richer offspring of e-commerce. 

If e-commerce companies deliver goods in 1-3 days, Q-commerce companies deliver in 15 mins or less. This is a kind of invention of a product (or service) that no one really wanted. 

When e-commerce in India started getting bigger around 2012 – 2016, delivery in 3 days was a “wow moment” for customers. And then came Amazon’s Prime subscription with which 1-day delivery was made possible. From 2018-2022, one-day delivery was almost the norm, be it Amazon or Flipkart or Myntra or Ajio or any other. 

Circa 1996. That was when I was first exposed to modern retailing. My mother asked me to visit a particular shop where the sugar was cheaper than at the neighbourhood ration shop where we would usually would buy dal, pulses, kerosene and sugar, of course. 

The name of the shop was Subhiksha. It wasn’t just a new shop, rather a new concept. Where one could stand across the counter, look at various products and ask for them to be shown and then decide if one wanted to buy or not. 

Quickly, Subhiksha moved in to one of India’s first ever self-service models of grocery retailing, where one could walk around the store, browse and buy. Add to it, there were several offers and promotions offered by brands.

Cut to Sep. 2024. 

Shoppers browse the apps of Zepto, Blinkit (by Zomato) or Instamart (by Swiggy) alike and then order stuff (that they mostly don’t need, atleast immediately) and those which could be delivered in just a few mins. 

Thousands of users have shared their dissatisfaction that their orders didn’t reach on time as promised – 10 mins or less. I wonder, when did consumers, let alone humans become so busy, that a wait of 10 mins for grocery (or 30 mins for pizzas) is considered eternal? And the FoMo of missing out on ephemeral offers! Phew. 

Back in the day when Dominos would advertise that their pizzas would be delivered in 30 mins or consider it for free, many customers prayed that their deliveries be delayed, so their pizzas would come free. This is just the bane of humankind.

The only characteristic that differentiates humans vs animals is that of greed. The love for greed that consumers carry is incomparable to any other living beings. Even the wildest of animals will hunt their prey only when they are hungry. And this greed (for offers, discounts and promotions) is what keeps us retailers going. 

However, humans (as consumers) in several occasions buy things which they never needed in the first place. And at times when their shopping was inconsequential. 

Take End of Season Sales (EoSS) for example.

Shoppers wait for the occasion and throng branded shops at malls and high streets to buy apparel, shoes, accessories, home improvement items and what not. And then struggle to find use of these products, which end up rotting in wardrobes unused. 

Similar is the Q-commerce conundrum. 

All of a sudden, men, women and children in metro cities yearn for pantry and grocery items to be delivered before half a litre of milk comes to a boil. As if we are headed towards a catastrophe or an Armageddon moment. 

What started off during the Covid-19 lockdown – such as the fear of avoiding shops due to crowds, has now become a staple at several thousand household across India. Scarcity (of time)has never been more celebrated ever! 

My Nostradamus moments in Retail

The year was 1998. My classmate and I created an online booking option at 123India, a popular website which allowed users to build websites with a personalised domain suffix for free. The Madras based Client was Enhancers, an Event Management Company which organised concerts, Carnatic & Fusion Music involving some of the most reputed artists in India and abroad. We were freelancers cum college students and had the privilege of companionship and brotherhood, sparingly some snacks and coffee on the house. After all, we wanted to put to good use the coding languages that we were learning at NIIT.  One could choose the Concert, click on Number of Tickets required, share their Phone Number and Residential Address and within 3 hours, we would deliver the tickets and collect the money.

That was when I imagined a day when as a Consumer, I would simply click a button on a website, order grocery, food and other items which would get delivered right at my doorstep. Few months later, I heard that a company was already doing something similar to this at California in the US. The firm went by the name Amazon. During my stint at Musicworld, I saw in action the same model put to use where HamaraCD, the Kiosk installed at the store could be used to build a personalised playlist digitally, which would get recorded at the backend and delivered to Customers in a week’s time. That a CD bearing 9-11 songs would cost ₹399/- was a deterrent to potential customers and the project never took off.

In 2015, I tried to go back to my idea of 1998 and tried to put it in to good use. I built a website myself on Zepo (similar to and an Indianised version of Shopify) where Customers could order Grocery and Household items which would be picked up by my team from a neighbourhood area and delivered to Customers. Oyethere was warmly welcomed and embraced by Customers and we made a lot of noise and news for delivering Tender Coconuts during the Summer of 2016 and Kabali Movie Tickets and T-Shirts thereafter. We delivered 100s of Patanjali products across Chennai and 100s of clay Ganesha Idols a day ahead of Pillaiyar Chathurthi 2016 – ones which were available by the roadside but many patrons ordered to simply see how this worked, for we also said we shall take back the Ganesha idols for immersion.

Investors although were not impressed. A noted personality from Mumbai, when I pitched at TiECon 2016 asked why would he order on our platform when he could walk down to buy it. He and many other “Potential Angel Investors” said the venture doesn’t make “Unit Economics” for we had more Opex than Revenues, an unwritten norm and a must-do for StartUps and Founders today. There was no Corona Lockdown back then. I said, our StartUp targeted “Cash Rich Time Poor” shoppers who preferred convenience over cost, because our model was to charge 2% on Retailers of the Order Value and a small fee from Shoppers. With volumes of deliveries, we would eventually break even. Those days, Swiggy and Zomato were not delivering Idlis or Burgers below the Menu Price, there was no concept of Delivery Charges for “parcel food” from Restaurants although MakeMyTrip and BookMyShow were already charging users. I convinced him and many others over the next three years, around 50+ pitches. I went back to a day job early this year.

When the Covid Crisis was taking shape and making headlines in India during the first week of March, I sensed a huge surge in OTT Consumption and switched Levista’s Advertising to News Channels instead of GECs. I also shared my views that Multiplexes would reserve 1 seat unutilised for every 4-6 seats which were blocked. And that Swiggy, Zomato and Dunzo would redefine Hyperlocal Retailing. Small joys of life when I see things happening right in front of my eyes.

These are some of those “Nostradamus moments” for me as I look back at my 23 years of being in the Indian Retail Industry. There are many such instances that I could add and share. Like how Consumers would order online and get home-delivered Microwave Ovens, Refridgerators and LED Tvs along with grocery items, although not from the same App. Amazon Prime could be an exception. We’ve just begun. Miles to Go...