By Sharukh Lakhani

In a country where top cities are as densely populated as ours with ever-increasing traffic eating away a higher share of time than perhaps anything else, imagining a product delivery promise under 10 minutes being lived up would seem like a far cry. But often it is the unimaginable that becomes the game changer & the new usual. QCom is already a $3.5 Bn market and is projected to grow at over 40% CAGR for the next 4-5 years and reach close to $9 Bn by 2028. 

Loyal Qcom shoppers are shopping on an average of 10-12 times a month, purchasing not just dairy,  bread, eggs & impulse categories such as snacking, beverages and ice creams. Products within beauty & personal care, household care, kitchen appliances, apparel and gifting items are also gaining traction. 

The biggest irony is that Amazon, the global pioneer of fast delivery, will perhaps be the last retailer to enter this space in India! 

A summary of key trends in the Quick Commerce space that I expect to unfold faster in 2025 & beyond: 

• Expansion into new cities & categories: 

Having established themselves well in the metro cities, most of the Qcom retailers are expected to move rapidly in expanding to Tier 2 cities and beyond, with Blinkit planning to expand to over 100 cities in the next 1 year operating over 1000 dark stores soon. Their target is to reach 2000 dark stores by Mar’26. Retailers are also launching categories within health and personal care, electronics & apparel.  

Implication: This provides an excellent opportunity for brands to deploy regional campaigns & test out new launches in specific markets. Brands in HPC, Beauty, Electronics  & Apparel should also start leveraging the strong tailwinds in the channel and begin media deployments post-onboarding. The idea should be to test, learn, deploy and scale, and the assortment mix here will be crucial to scaling big and sustainably.  

• Evolution of media capabilities: 

Quick Commerce retailers have evolved in the last 12 months and now offer full funnel media solutions – from captivating attention via stories, and pop-up videos to even capturing user attention during & post checkout, and more. Retailers also allow brands to advertise during specific times of the day and specific days of the week, so brands can deploy their media monies during times when the consumers are higher and more likely to convert.  

Implication: Excellent opportunity for endemic & non-endemic brands to experiment with high engagement properties on quick commerce platforms as this is a highly lucrative and relevant channel for targeting premium shoppers.  

Brands also can be smarter when it comes to media deployments and deploy media dispersion times when their categories peak – such as dairy during the morning, beverages &  ice cream brands post dinner and lunch, sand nacking brands during the evening and weekends. 

• Making small events big: 

From activating a live store during the Maha Kumbh Mela, or having a singles-app toggle during Valentine’s Day for all the happily single souls, to celebrating Mother’s Day with a specially curated page showcasing favourite products for and by moms, and more, Quick  Commerce retailers have gotten innovative. 

Implication: Make small events a big growth opportunity – an opportunity for brand and marketing teams to think innovative, partner with platforms and drive regional brand resonance beyond Diwali and also tap into events such as Valentine’s Day, Pongal, Makar  Sankranti, Christmas, New Years, gold shopping during Dhanteras and more! 

• Ad Capabilities expansion and automation  

Search automation is now a possibility on all three quick commerce platforms – Blinkit,  Swiggy Instamart & Zepto, finally allowing brands and agencies an option to optimize at scale, deploy in bulk and run automated rule-based campaigns for driving efficiencies.  

Implication: Particularly for brands operating in multiple categories with huge  assortments, search automation on quick commerce is a must for driving long-term efficiencies, saving mundane manhours lost in manual changes and automating reporting  

• Driving retailer partnerships 

Partnership possibilities with Quick Commerce retailers are immense, with brands engaging in fun banters (recent OOH banter campaign between Zepto & Shaadi.com or Blinkit & Cadbury Silk during Valentine’s, to launching co-branded packs like Jimmy Cocktails did on Swiggy Instamart.  

Implication: Brands must leverage retailer’s strengths and capabilities, as well as bank on their drive of expanding user reach and penetration in the next few years. Partnerships now set up will drive fruitful results at both ends in the years to come.  

• Retail media possibilities opening up: 

Brands can now target Quick Commerce transacting audiences on Facebook, Instagram,  or when they’re browsing across the web. Brands can now also leverage data partnership possibilities by deploying and further enriching their first-party audiences quickly. 

Implication: Excellent opportunity for brands to deploy digital budgets and test out collaborative ad campaigns. With actual transacting audiences being highly deterministic in nature, the effectiveness of campaigns will be stronger and drive end goals better.  

• Media costs and profitability 

Brands and advertisers associated with quick commerce in the last 1-2 years are used to seeing CPMs as high as 2000, or even much more. The only question is when the euphoria will settle down and when rates will become more mature.  

Implication: Brands and advertisers must work on deploying automation on search to drive efficiencies and negotiate hard with retailers in capping asset costs with media JBPs to ensure there is accountability at both ends. This phase of astounding growth and high media inflation will remain for another year, post which we can expect it to settle down.  It is key for brands to identify products and categories where they should play heavier quickly from a media standpoint and not get too carried away in doing it all.  

Quick Commerce is projected to touch 15% of total E-commerce sales in India within the next 10  years, with E-commerce itself expected to touch $500 Bn making it 18-20% of total retail in India in the next 10 years. 

The author is general manager, Commerce Media & Strategy, Wavemaker India