The launch of Apple’s iPhone 16 series in India on Friday, not only saw consumers queuing outside its flagship stores in Mumbai and Delhi, but quick commerce firms also racing to deliver them at their fastest speed, within 10 minutes.
This was the first time when the country’s three q-comm firms, Blinkit, Zepto, and BigBasket’s BBNow, started deliveries of Apple’s latest model on the same day. The race was almost neck and neck with Blinkit running out of stock by the end of the day, and Zepto left with just a few. Comparatively, BBNow had little higher stocks till the end of the day.
The base and Plus models were the only the ones available on quick commerce apps, while the premium models – Pro and Pro Max – were made available through pre-booking.
All the three platforms had launched the service in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru on Friday. Additionally, Blinkit is exclusively providing deliveries in Pune and Zepto in Hyderabad and Chennai. The companies plan to expand coverage in the coming months.
After sales started at 8 am across the three platforms, Blinkit said it sold nearly 300 units in the first three hours itself, while BigBasket said it sold more than 100 units by 10 am. Big Basket said it delivered an iPhone 16 to a customer in Koramangala, Bengaluru, by 8.07 am, with the order placed at exactly 8 am. BigBasket expects to sell 2,000 units of iPhone 16 within the next week, said a source close to the company.
While BBNow has tied up with Tata-owned electronics retailer Croma, Blinkit has partnered with Unicorn Stores, a premium Apple reseller with 79 stores across the country.
To ensure fast deliveries, Blinkit and BB Now have optimised their networks by positioning stock in micro-fulfilment centres across major cities.
Apple’s latest iPhone has a starting price of Rs 79,900 for its base model, which goes as high as Rs 1,84,900 for its Pro Max model. Similar to previous iPhone launches, the pre-booking demand for iPhone Pro and Pro Max models outran supply, leaving some customers waiting as long as a week to get their pre-booked devices, several retailers told FE.
While none of the quick commerce platforms shared the total number of units sold on day one, this is the first instance of quick commerce apps getting an advantage over e-commerce rivals in terms of faster delivery of the latest iPhone. E-commerce majors such as Amazon, who have so far monopolised the market for gadget launches, are offering next-day and two-day delivery of the devices while Flipkart will take as long as Sept 27-28 to make the deliveries.
E-commerce platforms are already losing a chunk of their consumers to quick-commerce apps for categories such as groceries, staples, beauty, kitchen storage, small electronics, and more. The latest move takes their competition into the category of latest gadgets, where first availability and faster delivery dates are important to buyers.