Magic! Amazon, Flipkart, Reliance and now, Blinkit and Zepto- speed kills?
The chase is on! Indian grocery startups are luring tech-savvy customers with the promise of deliveries within 10 minutes, sparking a boom in "quick commerce", but heating up concerns about road safety as bike riders scramble to meet tight deadlines. Competition is already intense in India's $600-billion grocery retailing industry, populated by the likes of Amazon, Walmart's Flipkart and Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries. Now SoftBank-backed Blinkit and its rival Zepto are racing to hire staff and open stores in their bid to grab a share of the market by offering the convenience of delivery in 10 minutes, far lower than the hours, or days competitors take.
Their mission: pack groceries within a few minutes at so-called dark stores, or small warehouses in densely populated neighbourhood buildings, and send bike riders to nearby locations with about seven minutes to spare.
"It's a threat to the larger players," Ashwin Mehta, a lead IT sector analyst at India's Ambit Capital, told Reuters. "If people get used to 10 minutes, those companies offering 24-hour deliveries will be forced to reduce their timelines."
As activity grows, research firm RedSeer says India's quick commerce sector, worth $300 million last year, will swell 10-15 times to touch $5 billion by 2025.
Blinkit and Zepto, started by two 19-year-old dropouts from Stanford, have caught consumers' fancy, satisfying cravings for food and impulse shopping, as well as urgent needs for daily supplies.
"This is very convenient, it has made a lifestyle change," said Sharmistha Lahiri, who now turns to Blinkit to fill the gap when ingredients suddenly run out in her kitchen, from tomatoes for soup to chocolate icing for a cake.
The 75-year-old, who lives
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