What is Quick Commerce – Definition, Examples, Business Model, Benefits

The news of big companies hopping onto the quick commerce bandwagon has created a buzz in the market about this business model. Recently, Zepto promised to deliver the groceries in 10 mins, Grofers rebranded itself as ‘Blinkit’ & adopted the quick commerce model, Swiggy is increasing its delivery persons to offer qcommerce services, Dunzo is delivering the essential stuff in 19 minutes. And Bigbasket has entered the q-commerce model recently with ‘BBNow’.

With everyone focussing on the quick commerce model, the future of this model sounds bright and more businesses are estimated to be adopting this model in coming years. According to a report by Redseer, Quick commerce market penetration, which was approximately 0.3 Bn USD in CY2021, is expected to reach $5 Bn by 2025 with 10-17x growth in the next five years.

What is Quick Commerce? [Definition or Meaning]

Quick Commerce or Q-Commerce is a newer business model evolved from the concept of eCommerce. Q commerce is all about speed and convenience. It is about delivering the needed goods/services to the customers almost instantly, on customers’ demand, anytime and anywhere they need it. For this reason, it is also known as ‘instant commerce’, ‘instant delivery’ or ‘on-demand delivery’.

How does Q-commerce work?

Adopting the Q-commerce model requires the businesses to deliver the order to the customer’s doorstep within 10-30 minutes. For meeting this time criteria, the businesses set up the network of dark stores in the vicinity of their majority of customers, or partner with the local shops/stores/vendors in those areas.

For those who don’t know what a dark store is; A Dark Store is a mini-warehouse, outlet, or mini-fulfillment center located within a city or an area using which online businesses deliver their orders quickly in that area.

How is the recently evolved Qcommerce model different from the existing eCommerce model? [ Quick Commerce vs eCommerce]

• In the existing eCommerce model, the customer’s orders can be delivered to them in a 3-7 days time frame. But, the quick commerce model requires the goods to be delivered to the customer’s doorstep within 30 mins of the order. In this way, q-commerce is a step towards faster order fulfillment.
• The existing e-commerce model focuses upon building large warehouses on the outskirts of cities. But, with the quick commerce model, sellers are focusing on building mini-warehouses near the point of delivery to reduce the turnaround time from hours/days to minutes.
• In the existing eCommerce model, delivery trucks had been the most used vehicles for delivery. With Quick commerce, two-wheelers have become a preferred mode of delivering orders, as they are less likely to be impacted by heavy traffic and parking space problems. 
• With the q-commerce model, the focus is on maintaining the stock of a small variety of high-demand items to ensure super fast delivery, as opposed to keeping the stock of a wide variety of items.

What are the benefits of Quick Commerce?

1. Improved Customer Experience, Ease, and Convenience

With the busy lifestyles, the convenience of getting things delivered to doorstep has always been admired. But now, with the pandemic & things like social distancing and work from home, on-demand delivery has become the need of the hour. Quick commerce has evolved as a business model to provide instant support to the communities in need.

2. Greater Profit margins

Due to the added convenience of the quick commerce model, many consumers don’t mind paying a little extra fee for the instant delivery of the required stuff. Quick Commerce is a win-win, as consumers can avoid the unwanted hassle with instant delivery, and the businesses can earn higher margins on the goods by offering a super-fast delivery with the added fee.

3. An Opportunity for the Small Online Businesses to Grow

Customers in need of instant delivery would be willing to buy things also from the small stores/shops if they can deliver the stuff faster from the large companies. This gives small online retailers a way to compete with large players.

How to enter into the Quick Commerce Model as a small business?

To step into the quick commerce market, you need an online ordering and delivery system that can help you manage your customers, orders, inventory & delivery procedures so that you can provide instant deliveries to the customers in your area.

You can achieve all this with Ordefy and handle your business processes like a pro.

So, for what are you waiting? Choose the best plan for your business and join the Quick Commerce bandwagon now!