At a time when Flipkart has entered the quick-commerce race with a service called Minutes, executives at rival players said they are in a wait-and-watch mode. They said they would be concerned only once the e-commerce firm is able to execute successfully.
The Walmart-owned firm’s quick-commerce service has gone live in some parts of Bengaluru, putting it in competition with firms such as Zepto, Swiggy’s Instamart, and Zomato’s Blinkit.
Flipkart has been planning to enter the 10-minute delivery service space for the past few months. According to industry sources, 15-20-minute deliveries provided by players such as Zepto, Instamart, and Blinkit are taking a major portion of the sales of products away from Flipkart and Amazon.
“The big question is whether they can offer more selection and value in the fastest time possible,” said an executive at a rival company.
The person said that Flipkart differentiates itself by providing e-commerce service to Tier 2 and 3 cities and Bharat and it would be a challenge for them to scale up quick commerce to such locations.
Another executive said that it would be a concern for players such as Zepto, Instamart, and Blinkit if Flipkart can execute a better quick-commerce service. “This way, customers don’t have to have multiple quick-commerce apps. All of the shopping can be done in just one app,” said the person.
Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa said that the Gurugram-based firm’s priority at the moment is to ensure customer satisfaction and improve its capabilities in the long run.
“Competitive intensity in the quick-commerce category has been high since the word ‘quick commerce’ was coined,” he recently said in a letter to shareholders, while announcing Blinkit’s June quarter results.
“Recently, some players have been spending more on marketing and subsidies. However, our customers, who value quality of service and reliability, seem to be unaffected and that reflects in our performance of the quarter, where we have grown over 20 per cent without the need to match the spending or subsidies of our competitors,” he added.
Blinkit plans to keep up its expansion spree at the cost of lower short-term margins and aims to increase its dark store count to 2,000 from the current 639 by the end of 2026. Most of these stores will be in the top 10 cities in India. Beyond the large cities, the size of the market is still undiscovered.
In Zomato’s June quarter results, Blinkit outpaced the company’s core food delivery business both in terms of adjusted revenue and gross order value (GOV) growth. The quick-commerce vertical’s GOV and revenue grew at over 22 per cent quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) versus food delivery, which grew at over 10 per cent across both metrics.
The company’s GOV in the June quarter stood at Rs 4,923 crore, up from Rs 4,027 crore a quarter ago.
Mumbai-based Zepto, another rapidly growing quick-commerce firm, also remains unbothered by the entry of larger incumbents.
“This is probably the least competitive period we have had since we started the company. Around 18-24 months ago, there were many more players that don’t exist anymore. And even at the most intense competitive periods, the company continued to perform well,” CEO Aadit Palicha told Business Standard when Zepto raised $665 million in a massive funding round in June this year.
Zepto plans to double its dark store network to 700 by March 2025. It recently raised $665 million in a funding round that doubled its valuation to $3.6 billion and marks one of the largest financings in quick commerce this year.
While it is still early days for Flipkart in the quick-commerce space, analysts say that the e-commerce giant’s success would be contingent upon the firm’s execution.
“(Flipkart’s) success will hinge on its ability to find a strong product-market fit, solve the complexity of hyperlocal delivery, optimise tech and supply chain for quick turnarounds, and create a differentiated brand focused on quick commerce, de-linked from its traditional offering,” said analysts at JM Financial in a note.
Zepto, for instance, saw its market share rise to 28 per cent as of January this year from 24 per cent last year, on the back of strong execution over the last year. Swiggy Instamart, meanwhile, saw its share slip to 32 per cent this year, from 36 per cent last year and 52 per cent in 2022, according to analysts at HSBC.
“Players that are not executing well will continue to lose market share and scale. Players that are executing well will continue to pull ahead. However, it is not as much about market share as it is about being able to build a large profitable business, because the market is large enough to sustain multiple players,” Palicha of Zepto said.
First Published: Aug 06 2024 | 6:43 PM IST