Over the past decade, e-commerce gained lot of traction, with companies like Amazon and Flipkart among many others offering customers the convenience to order from anywhere and from a wider choice of products on offer. But now, quick commerce is the buzzword. Apart from convenience and choice, companies like Zomato-owned Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart offered instant deliveries and young customers have latched on to it. The growth has been so rapid that even incumbents are eyeing a share of the pie.
The latest buzz is that the Tata Group, through the e-commerce super app Tata Neu, is set to launch Neu Flash, which will offer instant deliveries across grocery, electronics and even fashion.
It was only recently that Tata-owned online supermarket BigBasket had informed its customers that instant deliveries would be the default option going ahead.
BigBasket earlier offered two choices. BigBasket, itself, where customers could order grocery based on their preferred time slots, or on slots available, which could be same day or even next day. The other option was bbnow for more instant deliveries.
Earlier this month, BigBasket notified its customers that all the orders will now be delivered in 10 minutes by default.
"Previously, after opening the app, you had to manually select bbnow to get 10-minute delivery. But, not anymore. Now, when you open the app, you will be directly inside bbnow". Should any customer want the order delivered on another day or time, one could do that.
Now, according to Economic Times, Big Basket will power Neu Flash for instant grocery delivery. Separately, Croma would sell electronics and Tata Cliq will offer certain stock keeping units in the fashion and lifestyle space. Tata Digital hasn't yet officially commented on the news report.
When Apple launched the iPhone16 in September, Tata-owned BigBasket offered to deliver it in 10 minutes. According to Hari Menon, BigBasket's co-founder and CEO, the company delivered 372 iphones in just 100 minutes. It has since announced plans to deliver a wide range of electronics in partnership's Tata's electronic retail chain Croma.
Tata already sells fashion and lifestyle online through Tata Cliq and medicines through the acquisition of 1mg. These could very well be the next big additions on Tata's quick commerce platform if the latest report is to be believed.
Tata's planning a bigger play in the Q-commerce space comes on the back of stellar growth this space has seen in recent times.
According to consultants Redseer, the Q-commerce market grew 70-75 per cent in the year ended March 31, 2024, which was five times the growth of e-commerce. It expects the GMV (gross merchandise value) in the Q-commerce space to surge to around $6 billion in the current financial year ending March 2025, from $3.3 billion last year. It predicted 5 million new monthly transacting users and 20 per cent more spending by existing monthly transacting users.
Growing preference among the GenZ and millennials towards on-demand shopping is among the major reasons behind this surge in Q-commerce. Currently three players—Zomato-owned Blinkit, Swiggy's Instamart and Zepto—dominate this space. Walmart-owned Flipkart too recently entered this space through Flipkart Minutes.
Announcing its earnings for the July-September quarter earlier this month, Zomato said its GOV (gross order value) in the B2C business grew near 55 per cent year-on-year to Rs 17,670 crore from Rs 11,422 crore. GOV in the Q-commerce space more than doubled to Rs 6,132 crore from Rs 2,760 crore.
"Blinkit offers a generational opportunity to participate in the disruption of industries such as retail, grocery and e-commerce," said analysts at Motilal Oswal Financial Services after the September quarter earnings of Zomato.
A report by Elara Capital noted in September that neighbourhood kirana stores have been hard hit due to adoption of quick commerce, as sales declined 25-30 per cent versus pre-COVID and almost 20-25 per cent of overall outlets may shut if quick commerce continues to grow and expand in the non-metro markets.
It may not be the first entrant, but, Tata's wide presence across FMCG, retail, lifestyle and electronics could prove to be an advantage for Tata Digital to scale up the q-commerce business quickly.