Inside 10-Minutes Delivery

But, as a consumer, have you ever wondered how these companies manage to deliver your purchases in minutes?

With a billion dollars pouring into the Q-commerce segment, companies are deploying the most efficient technologies to cut down the delivery time to less than 10 minutes. These companies are working to steady upon a few elements, i.e., the supply chain, inventory, order routing, fulfilment, and delivery, to make delivery within a committed time frame.

Shedding light upon dark warehouses: 

Q-commerce is based on the concept of dark stores. These dark stores, also known as micro fulfilment centres, are small warehouses ranging from 250 to 5000 square feet. To ensure quick and efficient handling of the products, they only stock around 1500 to 2500 unique items. These stores are not open to the public but are only used to fulfil online orders. 

The companies are partnering with local merchants who run and manage these stores on their behalf. Swiggy has partnered with over 150 seller-run dark stores for quick delivery whereas Blinkit claims to have a network of 300 dark stores. Zepto runs 100 dark stores, each of which has a provision to deliver around 2500 orders a day. 

Before being processed, packed, and dispatched, products are transported from warehouses and held in these dark rooms. For faster order fulfilment, these stores are strategically located making use of data analysis. Historical data along with a real-time database not only enables companies to choose locations of dark stores but also helps predict the order volume and categories of products demanded by the customers, resulting in improved inventory management and customer experience.

Routing the routes:

Customers visiting the apps are automatically directed to the nearest available dark store that can service their orders in minutes. At checkouts, the companies use machine learning – the branch of AI, to estimate almost exact delivery time based on real-time multiple factors including travel distance, driver availability, weather, and so on. 

With driver safety becoming a concern in the speedy delivery model of Q-commerce, Swiggy claims to use AI to keep an eye on previous delays. As a result, the company does not share the delivery time with the delivery executives, ensuring that the gigs do not put their lives in jeopardy in order to get the goods delivered on time.

Despite the use of all of these technologies, there are still loopholes that brands are attempting to fill with various forms of automation. As a result, we can expect the introduction of new technology in the market very soon, as this segment grows.

Just like every coin has two sides, Q-commerce comes with its fair share of shortcomings:

In several cities, the recent expansion of rapid grocery delivery services has increased the number of accidents, among other issues. With an influx of 10-minute delivery businesses in India, the supermarket delivery landscape has shifted dramatically in recent months. All this places further strain on already overworked delivery workers, who are often required to make a set number of deliveries per day to earn bonuses from their employers. 

To meet the ambitious deadlines, delivery workers frequently take risks such as speeding, making wrong turns, or parking illegally. They not only endanger their own lives in the process, but they also frequently run afoul of the law. Despite mounting concerns about road safety as speed becomes the primary goal of  Q-commerce startups, companies like Blinkit and Zepto are said to have adopted new incentive-based payment terms that include, in some circumstances, penalising workers for late deliveries.

Apart from putting additional strain on delivery agents, this development has the potential to alter the metropolitan retail environment as customers increasingly resort to dark stores rather than their neighbourhood businesses for their requirements. People have become accustomed to receiving everything very quickly. Q-commerce is based on the fact that we are lazy urbanites. We are helping to put these convenience businesses out of business. Dark takes on a whole new meaning in Dark Storefronts when local stores are transformed into congested warehouses. 

Understanding the genuine urgency of clients and striking the correct balance between delivery promise time and resource availability will aid Q-commerces’ viability and growth.

Despite the pandemic’s economic pressures, the e-commerce industry is predicted to increase to roughly $192.16 billion by 2025. Things are unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels; the e-commerce industry has become the new normal. Going ahead, consumers will expect rapid gratification as well as a wider range of choices in products such as electronics, apparel, cosmetics, etc.

As the number of players in this space grows, the competition is only expected to intensify in the coming times. With rival companies competing for every inch of market share, the food delivery market share will inevitably consolidate. The most powerful will either buy the others or drown them in the long run. Maintaining the on-demand model will require a massive change in the supply chain management approach.

Integrating technology and automation in warehousing and logistics is one strategy to respond to the market’s quick development. Our reliance on technology is growing, and businesses cannot avoid adopting it. Digitalization is required not only because of changing consumer preferences but also because of the opportunity that digital technologies provide for streamlining procedures. It would be fascinating to see how this business develops in the future.