Section Insights
Understanding Quick Commerce and Consumer Behavior
What drives the demand for quick commerce in grocery and fashion?
The majority of quick commerce is driven by grocery needs, with consumers experiencing significant pain points related to timely delivery. Additionally, there is a growing interest in fashion purchases, with many consumers engaging in both online and offline shopping.
- 80% of quick commerce is grocery-driven.
- Consumers face delays in delivery, creating a need for quick solutions.
- Fashion purchases are increasingly popular, with many consumers buying both online and offline.
Innovations in Quick Delivery Services
How are companies innovating to meet quick delivery demands?
Companies are focusing on specific use cases like snacking and beverages, which cater to consumer needs for quick and fresh options. This innovation is helping to shape new consumer behaviors and preferences.
- Quick delivery services are targeting specific consumer needs like snacks and beverages.
- Freshness and healthiness are key factors driving consumer choices.
- These platforms create a 'Trojan horse' effect, encouraging users to explore more offerings.
Building Demand Through Full Stack Solutions
What are the challenges and opportunities in quick commerce?
To effectively serve quick commerce demands, companies must adopt a full stack approach, controlling sourcing, cooking, and delivery. This creates a competitive advantage but also presents challenges in maintaining variety and quality.
- A full stack approach is essential for quick commerce success.
- Controlling the entire process from sourcing to delivery builds competitive advantages.
- Maintaining variety in offerings is a significant challenge.
Consumer Engagement and Browsing Behavior
How do consumers engage with quick commerce platforms?
Consumers initially engage with quick commerce for specific needs but often transition to browsing and purchasing more broadly. This shift is supported by features like try-and-buy, which enhance the online shopping experience.
- Consumers start with specific use cases but evolve into regular browsing.
- Try-and-buy features enhance consumer engagement and reduce return rates.
- Power users are emerging, indicating strong engagement with the platforms.
Market Potential and Challenges in Quick Commerce
What is the market potential and the challenges for quick commerce?
The quick commerce market has significant potential to disrupt traditional retail by offering new buying occasions and improving the shopping experience. However, challenges include logistics costs and the need for efficient inventory management.
- Quick commerce can disrupt traditional retail by creating new buying occasions.
- Improving the shopping experience is crucial for attracting consumers.
- Logistics and inventory management present ongoing challenges.
Transcript
0:00 actually 80% of GMBB of all of the quickcommerce companies out there is still driven by grocery. form. So in a way these horizontals are truly verticals for grocery right and similar to grocery food is one of those areas where you if you are hungry if you realize this need later and haven't had time to book online the delay in time of delivery actually pinches you right so there is a deep consumer pain point within this category when we spoke to customers here the part we kept hearing was that more than half of them actually almost buy fashion once a month in some form and a good chunk of them actually spending almost half the amount they spend on online and half on offline.
0:38 >> Offline buying in India is just it's not a great experience. It's not great to step out. So a lot of times people just do not go and indulge in those buying occasions. >> I think maybe two three things. One of course is this ability to shape customer behavior at scale right where things like try and buy being able to actually deliver and serve this impulse use case. >> BPC is also one of those categories where the products that are in a fashion keep changing very rapidly. Why do we think there's a consumer demand in the first place for a vertical fashion player?
1:06 >> Okay. Yeah, keep it inside. Yeah, that is fine. >> Hello and welcome to Summit Up by Elevation Capital, a series where we dive deep into the emerging trends and opportunities in the Indian startup ecosystem. Today we dive deep into quick commerce or more specifically about the verticalization that we are seeing in quick commerce of late. By virtue of being early partners of Swiggy, we've seen quick commerce since its infancy in India and of late we have also partnered with Snabit which is disrupting the quick services space. To discuss this topic today I have Manisha Nash from the consumer tech team. Welcome to the podcast guys.
1:54 >> Thanks Rashid. >> Excellent. Let's get started on this. This is something that I've been fairly excited to do this episode because it is so conversational, it's so topical. the first question on my mind as I see the amount of activity happening in this space is how is there even room for something like this, right? Because we have seen quickcommerce itself grow so much over the last few years. I remember you know two years ago we used to believe that quick commerce would be a 3,000 4,000 SKU play and even that seemed like you know pretty big and from there we we seeing most of the quickcom players operating dark stores with 20,000 SKUs some of them operating mega pods with 50,000 SKUs and so many categories with with that sort of a scaled up play where is there even room for specialized vertical quickcommerce players >> absolutely Vishy you are bang on there I think over time as Quickcommerce has seeped into all parts of our lives. It has gone beyond the kitchen into multiple other categories. Today we can buy apparel, we can buy electronics, we can buy longtail items. and today anything I check on Amazon before that I check it on Instammart Blinket or Zeppto to see if it is quickly available within my vicinity. Right? But in spite of that actually 80% of GMBB of all of the quickcommerce companies out there is still driven by grocery. So although they have gone horizontal the depth of assortment that they have solved in in some of these other categories is not as wide which is why these categories continue to be fringe and not the mainstay of these platforms. So in a way these horizontals are truly verticals for grocery and the belief that we have internally is that for due to this shifting consumer behavior which is not just for which is not just moving towards quicker delivery but also for experience which is better than the e-commerce 2.0 companies. There will be verticals that are born and we feel such verticals will be born across different categories. we also feel like the new models of commerce that are coming in actually are not just solving on the delivery axis but they are actually trying to bridge the experience gap between offline and online today. and as we go deeper into some of the more category specific plays that we've seen this will become more evident whether it's a try and buy in fashion or it's actually more fresher quality food available within quick timelines with within food. we'll realize that actually we are trying to displace offline completely and elevate the experience of online rather than thinking of this as only quick in within the vertical. So that's the way we think about some of these models. So the truest way to think about them is like actually new models of commerce where quick is one of the axis of innovation.
4:40 >> Very interesting Manish. I think I I really like the way you put it which is to say that as of now all of these players are largely grossly placed right and hence there are entire verticals left to be unlocked so that that paints it in a very different manner from the way I've been seeing it Ashra what are some of the verticals where we are seeing a lot of activity what is it that we are excited about >> I think there are a few places which I think stand out today and which are which feel a little more exciting I think one is of course food u one is fashion the third one I think Manish talked about earlier we discussed I think earlier is services as well >> so I think these are three large areas where I feel like quite exciting opportunities exist beyond those I think there are a whole bunch of other categories where things could also play out like one is of course let's say pharmacy beauty could be pets in a few cases on maybe product services stuff around like baby both on the commerce side and things like that so I think these are some which come top of mind where I feel there are very interesting problems where things could be elevated quite a bit.
5:46 >> Very interesting. Maybe let's deep dive into some of these and maybe I'll pick up food to go with to begin with and that's the place where we are seeing a lot of activity both from incumbents but also a bunch of new players emerging right what what do you think are the consumer side demand drivers that is leading to creation of vertical play in in food? Oh >> absolutely. So within food actually if you think about it the incumbent delivery timelines before this entire quick wave used to be anywhere from 25 to 35 40 minutes right and similar to grocery food is one of those areas where you if you are hungry and if you really if you realize this need later and haven't had time to book online the delay in time of delivery actually pinches you right so the biggest challenge beforehand was that you weren't clear whether consumers would pay for quick delivery also This would require a very different operational model to solve for it. Which is why this hadn't been attempted in the past. But now given that it has become more evident that consumers are willing to pay for areas where they need really quick delivery, companies have started going after this this demand segment. The companies which are building in this space and Swiss is one of those which is at the forefront have really innovated around what type time of demand to cater to. So many of these companies actually started with the snacking use case. For example, a lot of office goers in in you know offices which don't have a pantry or just for the need for socialization end up stepping down at 4:00 5:00 p.m. for a quick tea with a few snacks, right?
7:22 >> and that use case either is met by going to the local retailer downstairs or it could be met by eating packaged foods within the office. Yeah. and folks have now realized that it's actually better to wait for 10 minutes and consume it through any of these quick food platforms and which is not only healthier but also fresher and and which is the use case that some of these platforms are serving today. the second use case that you know I've seen many of these platforms unlock is beverages. So in the traditional food commerce wave ordering hot beverages never made sense right because by the time it would reach to you it would be cold it wouldn't taste similar because taste also changes as the liquid cools down >> but within if but if I were to get that within 10 minutes I am much more unable to I'm unable to order it and that was a whole new category that got unlocked a whole new set of brands that got built out on the back of it which is which are some of the use cases with which these platforms have started now these these use cases are sort of like a Trojan horse because that gets you experimenting with the platform and once you see delight we have now started seeing some of these platforms cater to even main meals right whether it's a lunch or dinner especially for use cases where you are not very cogn you you are not very focused on the brand that you are ordering from right for example if you look at let's say rice bowls or just salad bowls right a lot of the times you just want something you just want a quick meal and you want to move on to with your work right and at that point of time if there is a platform that can give it to you within 10 minutes and ensure that it is delivered in a fresh manner to you. you would go with it.
8:59 it also helps reduce the cognitive load of deciding which place to order that Net salad from. Right. Correct. So actually these platforms have been able to figure out some of these use cases and are meeting consumer demands which is the reason for which you know some of this these platforms are getting built out. >> Understood. And I think the the fear of opening up one of these platforms and getting into an endless doom scroll of where to choose also I think is one of those consumer drivers. I think if you have these sharp platforms on specific demand occasions as you said maybe it's a Trojan horse but at least at this point time I'm clearly coming in for a snack occasion for a hot beverage.
9:33 >> I don't have to spend time choosing restaurants near me that can deliver in 10 minutes and then finally get disappointed it comes in 25. >> Makes a lot of sense. But Ashra, how how are these guys managing to do this right? Because just the operations of managing 10-minute food delivery seems mindboggling to me. what what are some of the innovations that are happening on the operation supply chain side? >> I think it's a fascinating question with an equally fascinating sort of answer. I think there's lots to peel here, right?
10:05 Like one we think through about the innovation on the core product itself like how do you deliver great quality food within the constraints and the time sort of constraints that we have here. Second one in terms of how do you delivery and stitch the entire experience in terms of delivery making sure all the pieces of the puzzle work together right maybe let's talk about it one after the other we can talk about food first right so it's not like if we are actually going with this sort of short time frames like a 10 15 minute time frame like you of need to rethink how you want to approach the food preparation while balancing taste quality and so many other parameters so I think folks resort to I think a couple there's a bunch of technology here at play I think there are two three things that stand out So one of course is the technology of using something like deep frozen sort of food products which are frozen at like - 18 -6° have long shelf life of 6 months which is one option that I think some people can get to.
10:58 and there's a bunch of innovation on delivering the right products that can sort of last that shelf life without compromising on sort of taste and other things. The second one would be basically things around like cook and chill and things like that which are basically partially prepared then frozen at like let's say minus 4 reheated and then there's could be the other spectrum which is fully fleshy freshly prepared I think to today's model what we seeing is a lot of like two and three and it's a mix basically in simple terms it's actually punch of it is partially prepared like frozen at some level and then like sort of reheated or sort of cooked the final few steps of cooking are sort of done there these These usually have shelf lives of a few days or maybe like 1 to 2 days at best. So they're reasonably reasonably fresh.
11:41 Even if you think through a bunch of restaurants which also specialize let's say in like faster food and more QSR like form factor, some of these technologies are of course used there as well, right? Where you have some bases which are already prepared and on top of which you do the last level of cooking to deliver the great product for the end customer. >> So this is I think on the cooking part where I think folks use couple of these sort of technologies. On the other side, we think that there's a full stack approach which is very critical to actually deliver that experience to the end customer. if there is a separate player sort of focusing only on the kitchen side of stuff and separate on logistics, it's very hard to actually meet the whole timelines from start to end. what I think we what we think it requires actually is to actually have a fully integrated approach where the same player actually owns both the food preparation plus logistics. In some cases, this may involve even stationing delivery executives at the place or being able to do load balancing smartly around the right time and occasions that we talked about to be able to stitch that whole experience together.
12:39 So, there's a fair bit of work that goes behind actually ensuring that end experience there. >> Okay, that's super interesting, Ashra. I never realized that this would be a space that would need, you know, full end toend control of the consumer experience. coming to the space then and our excitement. What are some of the key reasons that we are excited about the space Manish? >> Yeah. So the reason we are excited is one there is a true consumer need which is underserved today. which some of these platforms are really solving for right and this is truly not just displacement from large food marketplaces that are existing today but actually demand which is coming either offline or from packaged QSR packaged food back into the online space right so this is truly new need that incremental need that is coming up which we are serving through these platforms so that is something really exciting for us for example we actually did this survey where we spoke spoke to around 50 80 consumers across our portfolio companies which are live across HSR and a few other parts of Bangalore and realization was that all of the founders knew of all of the founders and the consumers that we spoke with told us about packets of packets from these you know companies coming in with very very identifiable packaging every time in the lunch right and there were at least like at least 10 20% of the workforce was always ordering for across meals right and across snack times. So it's a really new demand behavior that these platforms have actually been able to shape up which is primarily exciting for us. Second reason of excitement is that to to solve for this it requires you to build it in a full stack manner. It cannot be done traditionally in a marketplace model because you have to own each and everything from you know sourcing ingredients to cooking it to as Ash mentioned even figuring out the technology to ensure that you can prepare that meal within a minute or 2 minutes and then the delivery fleet to actually end service that demand. You need to do all parts of that end to end and you need to control it to provide that food within 10 minutes and that we feel is a really deep mode that you are building because it is not as easily replicable by folks out there. and that's the second lever of excitement for us and we feel like some of these businesses will really do have the potential to scale and become primary sources for us to order food from. in terms of challenges I think one of the biggest challenges is solving for variety because traditionally if you were to draw parallel into cloud kitchens and QSRs most cloud kitchens QSRs have struggled to go beyond few key dishes that they are well known for >> and hence a platform which is solving for this space will need to you know break that barrier and figure out what are other cuisines for which it could figure out these end to-end processes and solve for taste because in food ultimately in spite of delivery in spite of price being important taste is one of the biggest levers according to which users decide so I think that's the biggest challenge around which people are today innovating and thinking through I think the second is around price because if this has to become really your primary channel of consumption then it needs to compete at a at a price POV and in some of these fringe use cases such as snacking the AOE could be smaller however if you get into meals etc you still have much more margin to play from but price is definitely one key axis around which you need to be very competitive. Apart from that I think the third axis is just generally solving around trust. A lot of people feel it hard to believe that food is actually being delivered to you in 10 minutes. Correct. and have a lot of doubts. but these companies truly have engineered to make sure that the freshest highest quality food is available to you. Yeah.
16:25 >> Which is at times even much better even from a nutritional standpoint to eating packaged or going downstairs to eating. But solving some of that perception gap and building trust with users is the third challenge which I feel some of these players will have to overcome. But all that being said, I feel like this is a large category. this is a true consumer need that is being solved and will become large over time. >> Fascinating. I think I couldn't resonate more with the the trust part, right?
16:51 Because I think that's the fundamental challenge. But I think that's also the fundamental unlock. >> The minute you're able to drive trust with consumers that what you're getting is healthy, is fresh and is actually genuinely going to get service in 10 minutes. That is where I think a lot of what you're saying right which is the opportunity of not just going after the current food delivery opportunity but getting the snacking opportunity that you're reaching out for a unhealthy snack potentially or trying to put together yourself in a kitchen very quickly with a Maggie or stepping downstairs to that tapri to have a samosa and a chai. I think those are the opportunities to tap into if you are able to you know truly build trust.
17:26 couldn't agree more. Maybe just quickly shifting track from food to the other space that we're excited about where we think there is a big room for disruption in through quickcom which is in fashion right again something that fundamentally intrigues me because it seems like a space where both ends of the spectrum is sort of solved where where you know I there are there is a lot of fashion edition that has happened in the traditional quickcommerce players and of course we have the large fashion players multiple of them jostling for room, right? So, where is there room for a why do we think there's a consumer demand in the first place for a vertical fashion player?
18:04 >> I think it's a great question and something that we've also been thinking for a bit and eventually I think what we thought would be great was to actually go talk to a whole bunch of these customers and hear it directly from the horse's mouth. So I think over the last few weeks I think we've also had the chance to I think speak to over like 150 sort of customers across bunch of cities Bangalore, Bombay and other places and get some very interesting feedback.
18:27 Maybe I can share some of that right now. So I think what we are hearing u I think is twofold right one a lot of this is more relevant and more applicable today for a slightly younger audience maybe think through like an 18 to 25 or 18 to 27 sort of an age group right >> and when we spoke to customers here the part we kept hearing was that more than half of them actually almost buy fashion once a month in some form and a good chunk of them actually again more than half are actually spending almost half the amount they spend on online and half on offline. So online is actually a meaningful chunk and this behavior cuts across both men and women and it's sort of equally true on both sides and we're also seeing that the total spend available in terms of the category is also fairly high like we keep hearing numbers around 30,000 a year 40,000 a year and things like those right they're very sizable sums of money to think through for the category overall and of the kind of users we spoke to almost 15 20% of them had heard of quick fashion in some form had tried out in various variants depending right from myntra as an offering there are other players in Bangalore, Bombay, who seem to be doing stuff here. U there's players like Slick, Nod, Zillow and so many other people here, right? What I think we heard most interestingly here was that the way people got initiated into this was say it was a weekend. I was at a friend's place. we made a plan to go out somewhere. I didn't have anything or was not happy with what I had >> and like my friend said, "Why don't you try this place?" Basically, right? and you said let me look up a few looks here and it came through in the next hour or so. You got to try it. You liked it and you went out with that look. Right? So this actually serves very well into this I would say impulse behavior in the first place to say that look I made made a spontaneous plan. I want to see through and then after that you actually being able to have the right kind of inventory, right kind of brands and all of that to be able to support some of this choice. So I would say this serving this impulse commerce on fashion is one big use case that sort of comes through.
20:28 The second one is more of this emergency perhaps last minute. Both of these are good starting points into the category is what we're hearing. This is why I think most people seem to be getting initiated here. Once you're on the platform then there's normal behavior of saying that hey I love scrolling. I want to keep seeing new looks. I want to keep seeing if something comes up that I like and I'll keep browsing and if I like something I want to keep buying it basically. So you go from this very interesting starting point which is very use case specific into a more general browse mode and saying that hey I like to actually go like purchase something here. There's also early evidence of a bunch of power users being created here.
21:01 So again like 10 15 20% of users seem to be saying that I'm buying twice a month right now because they really like this. I started with something but now I keep browsing and every time I find my look and my vibe I'm going ahead and buying it. Right? And the other interesting thing that everyone sort of keeps coming back to is this whole try and buy use case. Yeah. So when we think of let's say offline commerce, you would go to a mall, you'd go to a store, you'd want to go try out a bunch of looks and see what you like and so on. Right? Online was more of saying this is nice. Maybe I can return it later. Now you're kind of marrying the best of both worlds in a way where you're enabling people to also look at a variety of sort of options and looks on demand and saying that look you can get it in an hour or two and you can actually then try someone will wait for you you'll try you don't like it you give it back right so I think that is effectively changing behavior at scale which is a very very interesting phenomena here so that's I think at in a nutshell some of the interesting things you're hearing back from customers right now >> very interesting I think try and buy is is I think really talks to the point you were making which is that a lot of these plays are not about just again on that vector of time. They are fundamentally trying to solve what online commerce, e-commerce, quickcommerce have not been able to solve for consumers and try and buy is one big fact there in fashion right 100%.
22:21 when it comes to the operating models for vertical fashion how do they look like? How how what is the interplay between say are these largely dark store models? Is it omni channel? and where do we think there's going to be more traction? No, >> absolutely. And the biggest challenge within this vertical fashion space is actually the operating model and figuring out how to balance the how to balance the the delicate relationship between assortment and inventory and ensure that you are catering to the customer need but at the same time not overstocking too much >> which can actually harm your P&L in the long term right and today and I I think that's where the mode for these players also lies right because that's not something trivially which another company could copy or even a horizontal could go and solve for. Right? within the operating model today, we've seen players do both. So players have started mostly with a dark dark store approach where they've run dark stores of 3,000 to 5,000 square ft stocked tens of thousands of styles within them and try to cater to the catchment within those areas. naturally with that side of sort of assortment size, you end up catering to a subset of the customer need, right? And ultimately you need to accentuate that need either by growing the dark store or by looking at omni channel. Omni channel folks have tried in the past but it has been a challenge to actually crack it.
23:46 because with with omni channel you need not only the brand but also the stores to be aligned with your operating model. They need to work at those stats to ensure that they hand over the items to you. at the same time once you return back items to them they should know how to restock it keep it like manage some of those returns within their stores itself right and that coordination just becomes a little bit challenging I don't think that's an unsolvable problem I think e-commerce has solved it qcom players also once they grow will end up solving it and it will truly become like an omni channel plus dark play but I think the short term or in the near term as people are solving it dark store has been the approach which they have taken even within dark store And see ideally most players have tried to ensure that they don't stock up too much inventory or take inventory risk on their balance sheet >> which is where a lot of the players have tried to figure out models where can they work with brands on sort of either on sale or return right where a large part of the inventory risk is then taken by brands. Again that depends on the power between the power dynamic between the brand and the player right and there are not not all brands are okay to work on that and ultimately you have to then figure out a merchandising model which allows you to operate even with some outright purchases by predicting what consumers will buy within that catchment right and that is a non-trivial problem statement to solve for but but I think that's where most players have ended up going after I still feel like this is not a solved problem but people are close towards solving it. and and that's where the meat of the problem lies.
25:20 >> Very clear. Ashra, if I were to come back to you on this aspect of what excites us specifically about the space fashion in quickcom, what would you say? >> I think maybe two three things. One of course is this ability to shape customer behavior change and sort of customer behavior at scale, right? with things like try and buy by being able to actually deliver and serve this impulse use case for customers right so that I think represents a very interesting opportunity and creates a whole bunch of incremental demand in the category so that's I think one which is quite exciting second one is I think for some categories this actually fits really well think of let's say perhaps more ethnic looks bottomware and a few other places where try and band some of these become much more relevant so for those categories versus like traditional online you can actually produce like a much better solution for customers here and I think that's one big area of excitement here. So yeah, I think these two probably largely stand out in my mind.
26:15 >> Adding to what Ash said, I also feel like quick fashion has the potential to displace offline buying as compared to just taking up demand from the online verticals. and that truly is a unlocker towards time, right? It actually enables you to like it enables online commerce to penetrate deeper into the overall category. I also feel like I also feel that quick commerce in fashion actually can be more efficient than conventional online commerce because in this case since you are getting quick delivery that timeline from you placing an order to you receiving it where sometimes consumers go into that indecision journey of whether I should have even bought it. that timeline is not there anymore right and hence as a as a function of that your RTO's go go lower your returns go lower and many of these companies are actually operating operating at half the RTO return of a conventional e-commerce company right which stands at 30%. So truly this can be more efficient although logistics cost could be a little bit higher and hence we feel this category can actually disrupt the incumbents in this market as well. 100% and again I think as you're saying it very similar to what you were saying on food also right the opportunity is not just to acquire from people who are already transacting online it's not just a switch >> of wallet but it is actually you know adding new buying occasions like you said for >> the people who are heading out to a party and suddenly they would have probably gone to that party you know not necessarily in in that outfit but now they are able to you know sort of explore something new or people I think the other that we've discussed is that offline buying in India is just it's not a great experience. It's not great to step out. So a lot of times people just do not go and indulge in those buying occasions but the minute you're able to add say something like try and buy somebody who would have you know postponed a buying decision is suddenly going to enter the category going to enter the consumption cycle. So I think there is there is massive TAM and I think looking at it as saying there is already online fashion or online food is so big and what percentage of that can be verticalized quickcom might not be the right construct to look at it >> 100% couldn't agree more I think so while it's clear what we are excited about in the space and and the opportunities what are some of the challenges for anybody who's already building in this or thinking of building >> so I think we've discussed it briefly in some of the last answers But I'll just summarize for brevity. So I think the first one we heard a lot from customers today is on assortment saying that what I see is not enough. I want to see more options. Right? And as customers they're right. They're like I want to see everything. I want to keep seeing more and more options. Keep giving me new and new looks. Right? especially as they say that look I want something in my core bucket where maybe I want like a uniqlo H&M maybe for some other occasions I want street wear maybe I want something else. I want newer age brands for something like this. So ensuring an assortment and sort of solving for that is going to be I would say one big challenge. the second one as Manish I think talked about earlier is balancing the need for this with basically the inventory you want to keep and the implications all of this would have on building sort of sustainable economics here. So I think being able to think through some of this is going to be I would say important and I think the assortment challenge that I talked about earlier of building that that also feeds into a very important sort of metric here which is in terms of what retention and repeats look like because I think if you keep one having the right wide assortment you can serve a variety of use cases and two if you keep refreshing it is when like I think a lot of users would want to keep coming back. So that's something I think folks would want to keep top of mind to solve.
29:54 These are as Manish pointed out not easy problems to solve. You're going to have to balance two extremes to sort of tread a very fine line. But I think those are some challenges to keep top of mind here. >> Very clear. Very clear. moving on from food and fashion where clearly we've seen a fair amount of activity already happening broadly in the ecosystem. Are there any other spaces that we think we are excited about or where we think something can get something substantial can get created in the coming years in India?
30:21 >> Yeah. So amongst spaces where we are now either seeing teams or have a thesis I think three stand out one is clearly baby so a lot of teams we've now started seeing are building within the baby and kids space seeing that you know whether whether it's apparel or whether it's personal care products or even just baby care products. a lot of these are time-sensitive purchases and today you know busy parents don't have time to go offline and shop and online if you order it takes a few days for the products to reach you to you right so is there >> like on the time on the delivery time is there a way to disrupt incumbents also the other axis of disruption is just generally experience which is saying that can try and buy within apparel for kids actually solve the problem of returns for for you that you face with incumbents so that's another space where we are excited about. We feel like there could be new players which are created there and which could over time take a large share from both existing incumbent but also offline. that's one key area. The second area we also feel excited about is just this entire thesis of building a whole foods for affluent consumers within India. and building this in an online first manner. So there are some early stage players today which are really focused on this segment saying that the fluent consumer which is ordering multiple times in a week from conventional horizontal grocery commerce quickcommerce companies is underserved because the requirement of quality veggies, organic veggies even you know more more artisal bakery items is not completely met and can you create a new platform which has a lot of this curated assort velment which ensures quality healthy food is delivered to your doorstep within the required timeline through a dark store.
32:11 and thus that we feel is a very exciting segment to build for. >> The third area where we have not seen as many companies but we feel quite excited about is just BPC. We feel BPC has some of the same challenges that Ash mentioned about fashion. users want a lot of assortment and today horizontals have solved to for assortment to a decent extent but it is still not completely solved right and BPC is also one of those categories where the products that are in a fashion keep changing very rapidly correct and hence you would if there is a platform that can actually give you a wide enough assortment which is relevant to the consumer in a quick fashion manner could actually cater to consumer needs.
32:51 >> So those are three major areas where we feel teams would get built out. but again never say never I think founders definitely have are the closest to the ground closest to the customer and we feel like there are more other areas around which commerce can be reimagined >> absolutely with that we have a wrap on today's episode thank you so much Ashra and Manish I had a question for you Ashra the research that we have done would it be okay to share it with founders who reach out to us if they want if they're building in the space and want some insights on what's happening in the space Sure.
33:24 >> Yeah. So, if you're building anything in the fashion space, whether it is the sort of an online quickcom play or even if you're a brand and you're just interested in insights on consu on young consumers from large cities, you can reach out to the team and we'd be happy to share our insights and also get to know what you're building. thank you and keep watching.
Summary
- 80% of quick commerce GMV is still driven by grocery, indicating a strong consumer preference for grocery delivery.
- There is a growing demand for vertical players in categories like fashion and food, driven by consumer pain points related to offline shopping experiences.
- Quick commerce is evolving beyond groceries, with opportunities in fashion, food, and other categories like baby products and beauty.
- Innovations in food delivery focus on operational efficiency, utilizing techniques like deep freezing and cook-and-chill methods to ensure quality and speed.
- The "try and buy" model in fashion allows consumers to experience products before committing to a purchase, enhancing customer satisfaction.
- Challenges include managing inventory effectively, ensuring a wide assortment of products, and building consumer trust in quick delivery promises.
- The podcast identifies emerging opportunities in baby products, premium grocery offerings, and beauty products, suggesting a significant market potential for specialized quick commerce platforms.
Questions Answered
What drives the demand for quick commerce in grocery and fashion?
The majority of quick commerce is driven by grocery needs, with consumers experiencing significant pain points related to timely delivery. Additionally, there is a growing interest in fashion purchases, with many consumers engaging in both online and offline shopping.
How are companies innovating to meet quick delivery demands?
Companies are focusing on specific use cases like snacking and beverages, which cater to consumer needs for quick and fresh options. This innovation is helping to shape new consumer behaviors and preferences.
What are the challenges and opportunities in quick commerce?
To effectively serve quick commerce demands, companies must adopt a full stack approach, controlling sourcing, cooking, and delivery. This creates a competitive advantage but also presents challenges in maintaining variety and quality.
How do consumers engage with quick commerce platforms?
Consumers initially engage with quick commerce for specific needs but often transition to browsing and purchasing more broadly. This shift is supported by features like try-and-buy, which enhance the online shopping experience.
What is the market potential and the challenges for quick commerce?
The quick commerce market has significant potential to disrupt traditional retail by offering new buying occasions and improving the shopping experience. However, challenges include logistics costs and the need for efficient inventory management.