D2C Founders Bat For Quick Commerce Route To Boost Operations

Speaking during a session on “On The Fast-Track: D2C Brands’ Guide To Nailing The Quick Commerce Game” at Inc42’s D2C Summit, a clutch of consumer brand founders discussed the need of growing a business on quick commerce portals.

Cereal maker Wholsum Foods’ cofounder Shauravi Malik, who was one of the speakers in the session, underlined that operational efficiency is the key for a company to venture into the quick commerce space.

She added that there is no fixed portal or means for each brand. Based on their need, startups should experiment with portals before they aim for a quick commerce market.

Chiming in, cosmetics label Swiss Beauty’s cofounder Mohit Goyal highlighted that quick commerce has become the preferred mode of emergency beauty purchases. Products such as lip shades and kajal are always stocked up to meet the running demand.

With the growing consumers’ interests, quick commerce or the fast commerce business, which initially started with delivering groceries and home essentials has now paved the way for multiple retailers to expand their line of products, including water purifiers, smartphones and electronic gadgets among others to be offered through these portals.

Quick commerce has been the game changer for most retail businesses to boost their topline growth. Food delivery startups such as Swiggy and Zomato have launched quick commerce portals of their own to bring in retailers and have been succeeding in the venture for about two years now.

The primary reason for their wins have been the shift in consumer behaviour. The growing preference of fast life has passed on its impact from tier I cities to tier II cities in India, where emerging consumer brands are finding new opportunities to place a bet on boosting their sales.

On that note, with Ola Electric set to hit the public market, the electric mobility startup’s founder Bhavish Aggarwal has reportedly revealed that Ola Cabs, with the help of Open Network For Digital Commerce (ONDC), will be tapping into quick commerce.

On the other hand, ecommerce major Flipkart made its quick commerce service live in parts of Bengaluru amid the increasing popularity of the segment, earlier this week. ‘Flipkart Minutes’, the new offering has gone live in HSR (Hosur Sarjapura Road) Layout, Bellandur and a few other areas of the startup hub.

The D2C Summit is presented by Broadway, co-presented by Simpl and Emiza, powered by Venture Catalysts++, Zippee, Pay10 and Mobavenue, along with associate partners NITRO and Rukam Capital.