How to Get Ahead of the Competition with Quick Commerce

For retailers competing for attention in urban centers, speed of delivery is becoming the differentiator rather than price. Quick commerce, or Q-commerce, offers customers new convenience, where items are delivered within minutes rather than days.

Huge investment is pouring into Q-commerce, as the delivery market is set to continue its blistering growth to reach almost $200 billion by 2025. 

Some experts believe Q-commerce could even replace traditional delivery models in the near future, driven by customer demand and expectations. This means huge opportunities for early adopters.

Before discussing how you can get ahead of the game and make the most of Q-commerce, let’s explore in more detail what it is and how it works.

What is quick commerce?

Q-commerce takes speed and convenience to a new level, allowing retailers and FMCG brands to offer hyper-local, hyper-fast, on-demand delivery. 

Rather than waiting a few days for products to arrive after ordering online, you can expect them within half an hour—or as fast as 10 minutes. This revolutionary change is made possible by advances in delivery, warehousing, and ordering technology and is driven by insatiable consumer demand for speed and convenience, along with an increasingly urbanized population. 

The trend was further exacerbated by lockdowns when many stores were closed, and consumers were stuck in their homes. The only option for many was to order in, and the boom in speedy delivery was accelerated even further. 

Q-commerce is a different type of shopping, ideal for when you need one ingredient for a recipe you’re already cooking or fancy a snack or cold soft drink—right now. With Q-commerce, retailers focus more on speed and convenience than competing on price. 

How does quick commerce work?

Q-commerce borrows from aspects of the economy that have seen rapid change in the last decade. On-demand taxi-hailing services, fast food delivery, and the concept of ghost kitchens have revolutionized the way we use everyday services. And now that change is coming to e-commerce.

To achieve the crazy delivery times expected, Q-commerce retailers use decentralized ghost stores or mini-warehouses spread out across urban locations rather than large centralized warehouses. They typically stock only around 1000 products and must be within densely populated areas to generate enough demand.

The model relies on on-demand delivery drivers who can quickly be mobilized to collect and deliver orders to nearby customers. Technology is key to achieving the required driver communications and dispatch efficiencies, inventory management, and ordering management.

How to get the most out of the Q-commerce revolution

Undoubtedly, Q-commerce is here to stay – and at the very least, will become a permanent part of the e-commerce landscape. Those brands that get ahead of the game, with their operations optimized and their tech in place early, will be streaks ahead of the pack. 

Here are our top tips for getting the most out of the inevitable rise of Q-commerce.

Location is paramount to your success

Q-commerce relies upon the trifecta of urban warehouses, on-demand delivery drivers, and customer proximity. If one of these pieces is missing, the whole model falls apart. 

Finding the right location for your operations is the key to success. But choosing the right location within dense urban centers can be challenging, especially with competitors vying for the same customers. 

Q-commerce brands rely on data from multiple sources to determine which areas to target. As brands use the model, they must constantly monitor the data they’re getting and make decisions accordingly.

To keep up with the exacting demands of Q-commerce, brands need clean data that they can quickly access and interpret. Below, we discuss how to do that.

Product selection is key

One of the biggest differences between Q-commerce and e-commerce is the purchases customers make. Q-commerce purchases are spur-of-the-moment, last-minute purchases, whereas, with e-commerce, customers plan and put more thought into their purchases. 

This means e-commerce stores tend to carry a wider selection of products, and Q-commerce retailers must streamline their product selections to maximize efficiency. Remember, these mini-warehouses don’t have unlimited space, and two-wheelers can’t carry huge orders.

Q-commerce is ideal for: 

• Snack foods and drinks

• Flowers

• Gifts

• Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG)

• Medicine

• Home office supplies

• Consumer electronics

Target the right customers

Another thing clean data provides you with is accurate insight into who your customers are. This allows you to target the right audience with your marketing and fire off effective promotions to your best repeat customers. 

Q-commerce appeals more to younger generations who have grown up with smartphones, online ordering, and everything they could ever want at their fingertips. 

But to drill down into your best customers, you will want to examine your data, the demographics of the area, and your peak ordering times. 

Delivery efficiency is essential

It goes without saying that quick commerce has to be fast, or you have fallen at the first hurdle. This is a huge challenge to achieve consistently.

Q-commerce retailers use bicycles and scooters for speedy deliveries over short distances. You must carefully manage when products are available and the delivery radius to ensure you can keep up with the demand. Poor management leads to delays and a loss of customer confidence.

Deliverect offers many tools to maximize your delivery efficiency, including order management tools that collate orders from your own ordering sites and any delivery partners and transfer them directly into your POS.

Be agile, adaptable, and always available

Q-commerce means being available when customers want you. Your digital storefront may have to operate 24/7 to give customers what they want. 

On top of this, you have to be lightning-fast to keep up with the pace of Q-commerce. Tasks like menu changes, taking products offline, and stock management must be handled under more pressure to fulfill orders at the required speed.  

Taken together, speed and constant availability make efficiency and automation essential. And any manual tasks will have to be undertaken incredibly efficiently.

Luckily, there are modern tech tools to help you stay on top. Deliverect allows you to make menu changes, take products offline, and do many other tasks easily from one dashboard. That means if you’re using multiple delivery partners to fulfill orders, you don’t have to log in to multiple accounts to make changes. 

Those with the best tech will win

Ultimately, the winners of the Q-commerce battle for supremacy will be the ones who invested in the best tech early and can adapt to the market as it shifts.

The key ingredients to success in this new economy are clean data, operational excellence, and adaptability. Deliverect aims to give brands everything they need to get the most out of the Q-commerce model and beat the competition before they know it.