A lot has been written about the emerging success of Quick Commerce, a problem that never existed, being solved by a handful of players, like a well coordinated orchestra.
In its recent quarterly financials, Zomato, the company that owns Blinkit, has shared very interesting statistics about the performance of the independent division.
Blinkit served 92.9 mn orders during the 3-month period July to Sep. ‘24 over 45.5 mn orders a year ago, on the back of a very strong festive period this year in key markets such as Pune & Mumbai in Maharashtra and Bangalore in Karnataka.
“Ganesha Chathurthi” which was observed on 5th Sep. ‘24 witnessed lakhs of orders placed by consumers on the occasion of the festival. In the said markets, the festival is more societal than private, making it a great time for people to meet and greet each other.
Average monthly number of transacting customers grew to 8.9 mn this year, as against 4.7 during the same period in 2023.
Average Order value, however grew just 10% over the last year, from INR 607 (USD 7.22) toINR 660 (USD 7.85).
This is also because of higher discounts on products which were offered on the platform, and not necessarily due to the new categories introduced, such as beauty products, electronics, etc.
The company stated that its daily Gross Order Value at its dark stores which were more than three months old, was INR 9.81 lakhs during Q2 FY 24-25 as against INR 7.57 lakhs during the same period in 2023.
The number of dark stores operated by the company almost grew double from 411 stores in Q2 FY 23-24 to 981 during the same period in the current year.
Is Blinkit posing to be a huge competition to the millions of Kirana stores at the moment? Not yet.
The order value at Kirana stores is much lesser, due to the demography of customers who visit them. Small Kirana store, mom and pop shops, corner stores, etc. usually attract those living in the neighbourhood with smaller wallets.
The pack sizes bought by customers at these shops are usually the basic / entry level ones – partly due to the cost aspect and partly because they may not want to invest a huge sum on household items. That’s the way the societal fabric is waved in our country.
The ones getting hugely impacted are the 800 – 1,000 sq ft (mostly) air conditioned neighbourhood self-service supermarkets. It is at these shops that customers were shopping before the advent of the Q-Commerce phenomenon.
These customers have migrated to a more convenience channel of shopping grocery and household – ones that are self service, offer good deals and discounts and accept digital payments. Instead of a visit to the neighbourhood supermarket, shoppers are ordering on their mobiles.
On the other hand, the distributors of FMCG brands are frantically fighting this onslaught and are expected to go on a strike after the Deepavali season, says a key member of one of the top association of Retail traders.
FMCG brands should be worried. It is these Distributors and their associated trade partners, such as the supermarkets who feed their businesses.
All said and done, Q-Commerce is here to stay, no doubt. Similar to E-commerce platforms, there is a high chance that certain pack sizes and variants will be earmarked for this channel of distribution to safeguard the interests of of over 3 lakh distributors who feed the FMCG ecosystem in India.