Over the last year, India's e-commerce market has seen the evolution of quick commerce as one of its most in-demand verticals. Even as experts opine that this was a natural progression for online retailers, the pandemic seems to have accelerated the pace at which platforms are racing to adopt the hyperlocal delivery format.

India's consumables market is projected to hit $1 trillion by 2025 according to RedSeer. While quick commerce's penetration within the online consumables market is just 7 percent, it is expected to grow to 12-13 percent by 2025. Currently at $3.8 billion the total online consumables market is expected to cross $30 billion by 2025.

Rising adoption among digitally savvy, convenience-seeking customers with unplanned ordering behaviour, increasing affinity of online and gen-z customers towards top-up and impulse purchases and COVID-led changes in consumer behaviour are the biggest growth drivers for the category.

And, the e-commerce economy understands the opportunity- Flipkart Quick promises to deliver groceries in 90 minutes while Grofers is aiming to reach you in 15 minutes. Others like Amazon, Dunzo, Swiggy and BigBasket too are speeding up delivery time frames for the impatient customer.

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Better supply chains in collaboration with kirana stores, smart hubs, and predictive technology are aiding online retailers in the race for ultrafast deliveries.

Though deliveries are getting quicker, the challenges are adding up rapidly as well. Delivery partner fatigue, high cost of operations and long term sustainability of the model are some questions that come to mind.

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In an interview with Shereen Bhan, Akanksha Hazari, Founder and CEO of Lovelocal said, India has 60 million local retailers with 13-15 million retailers just in the kirana segment. There is no need to build a mirror network of dock stores or fulfilment centres in every neighbourhood because there have local stores, she said.

“For us, the problem statement is how can we digitise the incredible network of stores because COVID has really leapfrogged the digitisation trend in the country. So, if we accelerate digitisation of local businesses then we can deliver hyperlocal e-commerce in an incredibly capital-efficient way."

Pointing to the changed consumer behaviour due to the pandemic, K Ganesh, promoter of Bigbasket, Portea Medical & Homelane people who had not tried online shopping or were skeptical were forced to try it and once they saw the benefits, the wide range to select from and how convenient it is, they have adopted to it and there is no going back.

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Meanwhile, Ratnesh Verma, Founder & CEO of Pidge highlighted the need to recognise the supply side changes that happened over the last 10 years with the rising shift from offline to online and brick and mortar going away. “But now, it is the demand side changes that are happening. What used to be convenience as a consumption behaviour is now more a need-based consumption behaviour. Speed is important and reliability thanks to the pandemic is equally important," he said.

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(Edited by : Kanishka Sarkar)