The Funda Of Fatafat Delivery: The Fast, The Furious And The Fickle Business Of Quick Commerce

Once upon a time, in a world where patience was a virtue, people planned their grocery runs. Then came the era of quick commerce, where groceries, gadgets, and even questionably necessary impulse buys appear at your doorstep faster than you can say, Do I really need this?

With Zepto’s audacious 10-minute delivery promise in 2021, the retail landscape shifted. Initially dismissed as lunacy, it soon became the industry norm. Today, Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, Flipkart Minutes, and Amazon Tez are in an arms race to reduce delivery times to the speed of light. But what exactly powers this madness? Let’s break it down, strategy by strategy, with a dash of satire.

Strategy 1: Dropping Delivery Fees – Because Who Pays for Speed Anymore?

In the golden days of food delivery, paying for convenience was normal. But now? If you’re paying delivery fees, you’re clearly out of the loop.

Quick commerce players are slicing delivery fees to the bone to lure in customers. Blinkit, for instance, is on an expansion spree, opening new dark stores like a caffeinated landlord on a real estate binge. Zepto, playing catch-up, is burning cash like a 90s Bollywood villain lighting a cigar with a wad of rupees.

The problem? Delivery is the single largest cost in this business.

For an INR 550 order:

• Fulfillment costs hover around INR 100
• Last-mile delivery alone costs INR 40
• Marketing devours another INR 60

With buy-sell margins at 20-22%, even with ads thrown in, the battle to offer free delivery is financially suicidal. Yet, here we are, watching companies race towards profitability by bleeding money.

Strategy 2: Selling Everything from Groceries to G-Strings

Grocery delivery? So 2022. Quick commerce is now your emergency shopping genie.

Need a birthday cake? Check. Ran out of condoms? Blinkit’s got your back. Forgot to buy your nephew a birthday gift? Swipe, click, delivered.

Today, grocery sales have shrunk to 70% of GMV, while categories like electronics, grooming, toys, and home appliances are surging. Why? Because a pack of razors and a phone charger add more margin than a kilo of onions.

With quick commerce, the fewer questions you ask, the better:

• Why are people ordering kitchen appliances at midnight?
• Who suddenly needs a ukulele in under 10 minutes?
• Why is “emergency whipped cream” trending? (Let’s not dig deeper here.)

Strategy 3: Shrinking Delivery Radius – Because 10 Minutes is Too Slow

As companies race towards a 5-minute delivery utopia, their method is simple: Shrink the delivery radius.

Dark stores, once servicing a 2.5 km radius, are now targeting just 1 km. This means your groceries may arrive faster than your buffering Netflix episode.

The downside? Real estate costs soar, but the upside? You’ll never have to wait for a soda again. Because clearly, patience is for losers.

Strategy 4: Tweaking Supply Chains – Bigger, Better, Faster

If you thought quick commerce was just about more scooters and more tired delivery riders, think again. Companies are now:

• Setting up “super stores” four times larger than dark stores to stock bulkier, non-daily items.
• Centralizing warehouses for expensive products like electronics, ensuring they are delivered within 40-45 minutes.
• Optimizing inventory to ensure faster restocks (because nothing is worse than an out of stock notification when ordering chocolate at 2 AM).

In short? Speed at all costs. Sanity? Not so much.

Strategy 5: Embracing D2C – The Secret to Surviving the Bloodbath

What’s better than quick commerce? Quick commerce with high margins. Enter D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) brands, the lifeline of an otherwise bleeding industry.

Consider Sanya Project, which sells adult wellness products. The brand hit Blinkit’s shelves two weeks ago and has been flying off them ever since. The advantage?

• No awkward encounters at cash registers
• No ambiguous delivery time slots
• And most importantly, instant discretion

But for brands, quick commerce is a double-edged sword. Platforms demand up to 40% margins, meaning D2C companies burn cash just to exist on Blinkit or Zepto. But hey, at least they’re visible.

Strategy 6: Attacking Each Other’s Turf – The Great Grocery Gang War

Until recently, the Blinkit-Zepto-Swiggy trinity respected territory like an old-school mafia:

• Blinkit ruled NCR
• Zepto owned Mumbai
• Swiggy Instamart dominated Bengaluru

But now? All bets are off.

• Zepto has shot past 1.1 million daily orders, breathing down Blinkit’s neck.
• Instamart’s losses are widening as it desperately clings onto its stronghold.
• Flipkart and Amazon are salivating at the quick commerce pie, prepping Flipkart Minutes and Amazon Tez to jump in.

Translation? The war for grocery dominance is officially Hunger Games: Quick Commerce Edition.

Strategy 7: Becoming the Super App for Households

Once upon a time, Swiggy and Zomato were just food apps. Now? They want to run your entire household.

• Food, groceries, home essentials, electronics, medicines, and beauty—they want it all.
• Dark stores may soon add home services, moving into territory once owned by UrbanClap.
• If it fits in a backpack, it’ll be delivered in minutes.

Mission? Make quick commerce an irreplaceable part of life.

The Reality Check: Can This Madness Be Profitable?

For all the hype, let’s not forget that nobody’s actually making money yet.

• Swiggy Instamart’s margins are worsening
• Zomato is losing money thanks to Blinkit’s expansion spree
• Zepto is still burning cash to play catch-up

With razor-thin profit margins, the industry is balancing on a knife’s edge. The next phase of quick commerce will either be mass consolidation or mass funerals.

So, the next time your order arrives in under 10 minutes, just know—someone, somewhere, is losing money to make you happy.

Final Thoughts: What’s Next for Quick Commerce?

With fierce competition, vanishing delivery fees, and shrinking radiuses, the quick commerce game is getting crazier by the minute.

The question is, will it evolve into a sustainable industry, or collapse under its own weight? Either way, one thing’s for sure—

The funda of fatafat delivery isn’t about need, it’s about addiction.

And we, the consumers, are already hooked.