Is Q-commerce the need of the hour?

As consumer behaviour is changing and the demand for delivery is expanding, Quick commerce or Q-commerce has revolutionised the delivery landscape through faster, instant and convenient services. From takeaway food, to online shopping deliveries, the sooner a customer has their purchase the better. According to a research from RedSeer, the Q-commerce market size in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) stood at $ 9 billion as of 2020. The market will grow by 24 percent between 2020 and 2024 to reach 20 billion U.S. dollars. Talabat first forayed into Q-commerce with its 120 Talabat Mart stores during the pandemic by deliveries 24/7 within 30 minutes or less. In December 2021, Careem launched Careem Quik, a quick-commerce e-grocery service that allowed users to get all of their groceries in 15 minutes or less through its hyperlocal network of dark stores. Careem Quik began by catering to users in Business Bay, JVC and the Marina and will expand to most of Dubai with over 100 dark stores by the end of 2022

If we look at India the ’10-minute delivery’ market is set to be valued at $5.5 billion and currently, the Q-commerce sector has a $700 million estimate, touted to multiply at least 15 times by the end of 2025. Indian food delivery firm Zomato recently announced it’s plans to invest $400m in Q-commerce  over the next two years. As part of this initiative, Zomato said that its portfolio company Blinkit, formerly known as Grofers is fuelling investment confidence. On the other hand Reliance Retail has bought a 25.8 per cent stake in Dunzo, India’s leading Q-commerce player, for $200 million  as it looks to expand its presence in online grocery delivery business. With big commerce players like Talabat, Careem, Zomato and Reliance adopting the trend, it would be interesting to see how Q-commerce is a ‘huge addressable’ market. 

“We have now entered the era  where convenience is delivered in less than 60 mins to your doorstep. It’s about free Delivery on all your orders, no minimum orders on selected supermarkets, same product prices as stores, same discounts & promotions as stores and also loyalty points to be redeemed on future orders”, said Monish Chandiramani, CEO & Co Founder of Yeepey. Yeepeey is a UAE-based Q-commerce application into online groceries, organic shops, pet shops, flower shops, mobile recharges, stationery shops & much more! All this delivered in less than 60 mins to your doorstep with the same prices as stores and one of the lowest service fees in the market. Conceptualised in 2019 and launched in 2021, Yeepeey has seen a steady growth in its numbers as well as its user base. “We have over 80 merchants live and 15,000+ users on the application. We cover more than 80,000 products on our platform. This is spread across 80+ stores live on our application. It has launched only with groceries, now has a total of 8 verticals live on the application”, said Monish.

The basic difference between a platform like Yeepeey which typically delivers your products within 45-60 mins is the product variety. “We at yeepeey tie-up with local groceries, supermarkets & hypermarkets and give them the online presence required. Also, we act as a marketing channel and technology platform to support the local grocery stores to get online and help the bigger brands in the market to increase their revenues via our platform”, added Monish. The prices of the products are the same as the physical stores and the customer gets to choose from their daily essentials, carefully handpicked by Yeepey’s staff and delivered with utmost care and hygiene. Currently, it has tied up with more than 65 grocery stores, supermarkets & hypermarkets within Dubai with prominent names like Al Maya Group, Union Coop Hypermarkets, KP Mart Group and Blue Mart Group. 

The pandemic has immensely impacted consumers’ behaviour toward grocery shopping. Earlier, consumers always had it at the back of their head regarding the hygiene, freshness & quality.”Consumers can now see that our pickers also pick the goods with utmost care and keep quality at the top of their mind. We conduct surveys on a regular basis for customer satisfaction as well as our improvement”, stated Monish. He revealed, though some consumers will return to shop in-store post pandemic, others will likely stick with shopping online due to convenience. New technological advancements, like drone delivery and machine learning, will nurture this change too. “Q-commerce is definitely one of the most lucrative opportunities out there . We’re in a fast growing and a fast moving industry, it is our next play for the future of online retail and pioneering the next phase of delivery”, concluded Monish. 

RetailME Bureau