Quick Commerce is a new business model where hyperlocal marketplaces deliver consumable items ( usually grocery or other food items) quickly in a short span of 10-30 minutes to the customers. Ideally, the overall time taken from searching a product online, placing the order and receiving it at the doorstep; is less than 60 minutes in a Q-commerce setup.  

Quick commerce has gained huge popularity among online buyers thanks to its ease of ordering and instant delivery. With an over 50% of weekly retention rate, quick commerce is helping hyperlocal ecommerce players gain a strong foothold in the local markets. 

How does the Quick Commerce (Q-Commerce) Model work?

The quick commerce setup works primarily on the hyperlocal marketplace model. The following is the flow of the quick commerce model:

• A hyperlocal marketplace is set up under a brand name
• The marketplace brand sets up location-based sub-stores or micro warehouses
• Local stores can be onboarded as sellers to speed up delivery
• When customers place orders, the order is automatically routed to the nearest seller store/micro warehouse
• The sub-store/micro warehouse has its own set of dedicated delivery boys who know the locality well and deliver orders quickly

Basically, the quick commerce model combines two ecommerce marketplace models, the service aggregator and hyperlocal marketplace models. The hyperlocal model enables the qcommerce brand to set up location-specific stores for faster delivery. The service aggregator model, on the other hand, helps in reaching out to more areas by onboarding more vendor merchants/retail stores that already have a good presence in the local market.

What are the benefits of Quick Commerce?

Quick commerce is a win-all business model where all the parties involved benefit from the set-up. While the customers are happy with quick deliveries, the local retailers get more orders and the Q-commerce brand registers a steady growth without investing much in setup costs. 

The benefits of quick commerce are: 

• Loyal and happy customers thanks to quick deliveries 
• Fast growth in revenue due to high customer retention and high amount of weekly repeat orders
• Customer connect on multiple touchpoints like the hyperlocal marketplace, mobile apps etc. which make shopping easy
• Quick scaling of business to new markets by onboarding new vendors 
• Introduce new product vertices easily by onboarding related vendors/local retail shop
• Get targetted traffic and higher marketing ROI with localized and personalized offers
• Deliver according to customer convenience and preferences using own fleet of delivery agents 
• Better understanding of customer preferences and buying patterns for planning strategic business moves and promotional deals 

What are the challenges of  Quick Commerce?

While quick commerce is rapidly gaining popularity the model has its own set of challenges. 

Here is a list of key challenges of Q-commerce:

• Offering an assortment of products to take care of the everyday needs of customers
• Building a streamlined fulfilment chain to ensure timely deliveries
• Competing with the bigwigs like Amazon, Blinkit etc. and offer a price point that attracts and retains buyers
• Having a comprehensive tech solution that can handle the diverse requirements of the hybrid business model combining hyperlocal marketplace and location-based stores
• An easy to use and centralized admin that gives complete control and overview of every aspect of the qcommerce business like vendors/partners, delivery partners, location-specific sub-stores, warehouses etc.
• Integrated marketing tools to run a range of promotions on a daily/hourly/category basis
• Advanced reporting solutions to understand the performance of locations/products/vendors etc. to plan quick commerce business and marketing strategies
• Scalable tech solutions and fulfilment partner support to penetrate smaller cities 

What is the future of Quick Commerce?

The pandemic has pushed us towards a new normal and many of the lifestyle changes adopted during the pandemic are here to stay. Conditioned by the ease of ordering online tech-savvy buyers are more than happy to adopt quick commerce with its promise of superfast hyperlocal delivery. 

Q-commerce is heralding the new wave of ecommerce and the battle to win customers is going to be intense. The winner here will be the qcommerce brand that understands customer pulse and implements innovative tech solutions to give customers the most immersive and easy buying experience along with quick deliveries. 

StoreHippo is rightly placed to offer complete quick commerce and integrated delivery solutions ( 30+ delivery partners and inbuilt delivery boy module) for diverse quick commerce models. Storehippo easily customizable hyperlocal marketplace and multi-store ecommerce solutions can easily handle inventory-based as well as vendor-based quick commerce models.