
‘Q-Comm Cos Preying on Other Retail Channels to Drive Growth'
HighlightsOnly 6–8 per cent of sales on quick commerce platforms are truly incremental, with most growth occurring at the expense of modern trade and ecommerce. Quick commerce platforms, such as Zepto, Blinkit, and Instamart, are generating limited new demand and are primarily taking market share from other sales channels. Despite quick commerce being the fastest-growing sales channel, it still accounts for only 3-6 per cent of overall sales for most consumer goods firms in India.
Only 6–8 per cent of sales on
quick commerce
platforms are truly incremental, while most of the channel's growth comes at the expense of other formats—primarily
modern trade
and ecommerce, followed by local kiranas, according to a report by Kearney.
This is despite supermarkets and
ecommerce platforms
offering the steepest discounts to shoppers—typically in the range of 13–18 per cent, compared to 6–9 per cent on quick commerce and 2–5 per cent on kiranas or general trade, said the report exclusively shared with ET.
Industry officials agreed that platforms such as
Zepto
,
Blinkit
, and
Instamart
are generating little in terms of new or additional demand.
'Quick commerce is taking some share from marketplaces, they are taking some share from general trade," said
Saugata Gupta
, managing director of Marico, maker of Parachute oil and Saffola cooking oil.
To reduce '
cannibalistic sales
,' the company needs to 'ensure that we have a tailor-made portfolio to drive offtake, and not just give price discounting,' he added.
While quick commerce started off as a top-up service for last-minute purchases for groceries and small-ticket items, it is now the fastest-growing sales channel, especially for premium portfolios.
The contribution of quick commerce to ecommerce sales has been doubling every year, although on a small base. It roughly accounts for between 3-6 per cent of overall sales for most
consumer goods firms
in the country.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Indian Express
15 hours ago
- Indian Express
Why I miss my local kirana store: Confessions of a serial delivery-app user
It's been four years since I started using apps like Blinkit, Swiggy, and Zepto. For the first two, I barely thought about it. They were fast, convenient, and fit perfectly into the chaos of my college, living-in-Mumbai life. Surrounded by people all the time, in classes, the canteen, or even down the road, I'd do anything to avoid another social interaction. And the option of ordering something on a quick-commerce app offered just that comfort, a quiet pocket amid all the noise. But something shifted when I moved cities for work. I was living alone now. Friends were far away, family even farther. Most of my time went into figuring out money, rent, food, and the million other things no one warns you about. Now, I missed the tiniest interactions, the ones you don't even register when you're busy being social by default. Now, socialising took effort. And I started to realise what the convenience of delivery apps was quietly replacing: the walks I skipped, the conversations that never happened, the local prices I no longer understood. No one is as disappointed in me as my dad for not knowing how much a kilo of mangoes costs. In a world constantly on the move, where workdays spill into late nights, where we live far from home and physical stores often feel out of reach, Q-commerce platforms have become an everyday essential. Need coffee? Bread? A razor? Tap a few buttons and it's at your door in ten minutes. These apps have nailed speed, range, and efficiency. It works — until it doesn't. What began as a fix for urgency became something else: a reflex. I wasn't ordering because I needed something. I was ordering because it was easy. Almost too easy. I often think back to childhood. Growing up in a small town, buying chocolates or chips meant walking with my brother and friends to the neighbourhood shop. When my mother asked me to go get milk or biscuits for unexpected guests, I would throw a tantrum, wishing for the fix I despise today. But those errands taught us things without trying to — how to spend, how to choose, how to talk to strangers, and sometimes, how to walk away without buying anything. It was all built into the experience, without ever seeming like a lesson. That walk to the store was once forgettable, even annoying. Now, for many like me, it has become 'the thing'. We force ourselves to go outside, to not order in, because the room can feel imprisoning. In the age of instant gratification, everything's designed to be faster, smoother, and frictionless. But in removing the friction, we also remove the feeling. Grocery stores used to be a little boring, a little messy, and sometimes unexpectedly lovely. You might chat with someone on the street, discover something new in the market, or just stretch your legs after a long day. Now? Sadness has a shortcut — a ten-minute delivery offering a dopamine hit that fades just as fast. We also move less. Those mini walks to the store, the quick sprints before closing time, rushing to the stationary store to buy political maps for tomorrow's geography lesson, have been replaced by a single tap. We are always on the go, but weirdly still. There's no release, no break, no in-between space. It's work, screen, delivery, repeat. Socially, the gap widens too. The shopkeeper who remembers your favourite biscuit brand, the old aunty who asks where you have been — these tiny connections are vanishing. There's no credit system anymore, no end-of-month snack debt to settle. The trust your neighbourhood shopkeeper had in you, the nod that said 'pay later', is gone. And then there's awareness. When you stop visiting markets or shops, you lose a sense of what things cost, what's fresh, and what's worth your money. You stop comparing. You start buying what the algorithm suggests — another pen, a fancy drink, a lip balm you saw in a reel. It's easy to fall into 'I see it, I want it' because the system makes you feel like you deserve it. And maybe you do. But maybe you just need to feel something. These apps aren't villains. They are incredibly useful, especially when you're tired, sick, working late, just having one of those days, or even want a last-minute gift delivered to your doorstep. They do what they promise, and they do it well. But when we stop using them mindfully, when they become our first option instead of a last resort, we end up giving away more than just our money. We give away our movement, patience, curiosity, and our sense of place. In a world already leaning toward loneliness, where most of us are glued to screens and disconnected from community, even small things like going to buy milk or fruit can offer something grounding. You step out, you see people, you breathe. You feel like you are part of a world again. So no, I am not quitting Blinkit. I will probably order from it this weekend. But I am also trying to walk to the store, one that is literally 200m away, more often. Not because it's cheaper (though it usually is), not because I need the steps (though I do), but because I want to stay in touch with the world outside my door. Sometimes, what you really need isn't a ten-minute delivery. It's a ten-minute walk.


Time of India
a day ago
- Time of India
‘Q-Comm Cos Preying on Other Retail Channels to Drive Growth'
HighlightsOnly 6–8 per cent of sales on quick commerce platforms are truly incremental, with most growth occurring at the expense of modern trade and ecommerce. Quick commerce platforms, such as Zepto, Blinkit, and Instamart, are generating limited new demand and are primarily taking market share from other sales channels. Despite quick commerce being the fastest-growing sales channel, it still accounts for only 3-6 per cent of overall sales for most consumer goods firms in India. Only 6–8 per cent of sales on quick commerce platforms are truly incremental, while most of the channel's growth comes at the expense of other formats—primarily modern trade and ecommerce, followed by local kiranas, according to a report by Kearney. This is despite supermarkets and ecommerce platforms offering the steepest discounts to shoppers—typically in the range of 13–18 per cent, compared to 6–9 per cent on quick commerce and 2–5 per cent on kiranas or general trade, said the report exclusively shared with ET. Industry officials agreed that platforms such as Zepto , Blinkit , and Instamart are generating little in terms of new or additional demand. 'Quick commerce is taking some share from marketplaces, they are taking some share from general trade," said Saugata Gupta , managing director of Marico, maker of Parachute oil and Saffola cooking oil. To reduce ' cannibalistic sales ,' the company needs to 'ensure that we have a tailor-made portfolio to drive offtake, and not just give price discounting,' he added. While quick commerce started off as a top-up service for last-minute purchases for groceries and small-ticket items, it is now the fastest-growing sales channel, especially for premium portfolios. The contribution of quick commerce to ecommerce sales has been doubling every year, although on a small base. It roughly accounts for between 3-6 per cent of overall sales for most consumer goods firms in the country.


Time of India
2 days ago
- Time of India
Swiggy may recover quick commerce share despite widening losses: Morgan Stanley
Brokerage house Morgan Stanley believes online food and grocery delivery company Swiggy 's quick commerce business has a bright future. This is despite the fact that while quick commerce has helped drive Swiggy 's revenue growth, the company's expenditure on the vertical continues to drag its bottom line down. Instamart , Swiggy's quick delivery business, saw its gross order value (GOV) rise 101 per cent year-on-year to Rs 4,670 crore. However, the adjusted Ebitda loss also increased to Rs 840 crore during the same period. Nevertheless, Morgan Stanley said in a recent note that Swiggy is well-equipped to weather the rising competition in the quick commerce segment with enough balance sheet strength to continue investing in the vertical. Initiating coverage on Swiggy shares, Morgan Stanley analysts Gaurav Rateria, Sulabh Govila and Sakshi Rana stated in the June 2 note that medium-term concerns about competition in quick commerce will persist. Multiple new players, including major ecommerce companies, are now entering the industry. Even so, Swiggy will be able to protect its relative market share, the analysts noted. Morgan Stanley has revised its estimates for quick commerce's total addressable market—representing the entire potential demand—upwards to USD 57 billion by 2030, from USD 42 billion earlier. The brokerage expects 150 Indian cities to be conducive to the service, compared to the top 30 cities now. This implies multifold growth in the USD 8 billion market seen at the end of March 2025. Existing companies with investments in infrastructure will benefit more from the quick commerce upsurge, the Morgan Stanley note read, and Swiggy has invested heavily in the space over the past 12 months. The company met its target of 1,000 dark stores, adding 316 of these micro-warehouses in the March quarter, and is looking to expand the network. "We believe that store additions will be a derivative of growth... we have made a choice of network where we have these megapods, which are two-and-a-half times larger than dark stores and these can do 5,000-6,000 orders per day compared to 2,000-3,000 orders a day (done by smaller dark stores)," Swiggy's chief financial officer Rahul Bothra had told ET after the March quarter results in May. Swiggy's current balance sheet strength and profit in food delivery will allow it to continue quick commerce investments and focus on at least maintaining market share, Morgan Stanley said. Total cumulative investment, in the form of operating losses or cash burn, in its quick commerce vertical is expected to be over USD 1.2 billion over the next two to three years before the company reaches break-even at the adjusted Ebitda level, the brokerage house said. Swiggy shares rose as much as 9.5 percent during trade today to Rs 365 apiece. The counter closed 8.73 percent higher at Rs 362.50 per share, against a 0.32 percent rise in the Sensex to 80,998.25.