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Q-commerce sucks. Marketing 101 works!

Online is a funny place, if it can be considered a place at all. More so, the grocery delivery business that keeps changing by the minute. Literally!

First, it was delivery within 2 days. Then it was delivery within 10 minutes. And as if people couldn’t wait, it wilted to delivery within minutes. In fact, it was not even e-commerce anymore. They gave it a new name, Q-commerce. Quick commerce.

There was this start-up called Zepto. Started by two 19-year-olds who promised grocery delivery in 10 minutes. It even raised $200 million, shall we say, quickly. The startup’s valuation soared to $900 million, taking it closer to becoming a unicorn.

Grofers even went one step further and changed its all-grocery business model to a quick-commerce one and offered a range of other products too. For good measure, they even changed their name to Blinkit.

Not to be left behind, Swiggy got a $ 700 million funding to their Q-commerce venture, Instamart. The company claimed it would lead the Q-commerce grocery space and reach an annualized gross merchandise value of $1 billion in three quarters.

Ride share company Ola launched Ola Dash. You may be surprised Ola even launched a brand in the Q-commerce space.

Remember the last five overs of IPL matches. When even the commentators urged us to order and promised quick deliveries. 10-minute delivery was the in-thing.

The market was abuzz. The investors were thrilled. The start-ups were vrooming. The business press went gaga. Everybody was rooting for Q-commerce. Except the customer. They refused to join the party. They didn’t need 10-minute delivery. Once in an emergency, yes; but daily, no. They weren’t keen paying a delivery fee for it.

Zepto has stopped saying 10-minute delivery. Ola Dash has announced it is shutting down. Blinkit is too numb to speak. Ladies and Gentlemen, Q-commerce is dead. The brands are beating a hasty retreat. The start-ups are changing their business models. No more 10-minute delivery. It’s back to square one. Delivery time that’s reasonable. Delivery schedules that suit customer needs.

The only thing faster than the birth and speed of growth of Q-commerce has been its quick demise. Maybe we should have called it D-commerce. That’s what this concept was always destined for.

One of the many good things about Marketing 101 is its limited syllabus. The rules are limited and, importantly, they are simple.

Thou shall only serve the need of the customer. Thou shall find a customer need and serve it better than others and the customer shall beat a path to your door.

Thou shall not create a need. When you conjure up solution for a need that doesn’t exist, the customer shall beat a path to your door, and close it.

What then explains the madness of investors and their mad rush to invest in start-ups who don’t understand the basics of Marketing 101. Why would they invest in an idea that tries to solve a problem that doesn’t exist?

When I first wrote about this in ‘Hindu Tamil Thisai’ (https://www.hindutamil.in/news/supplements/vaniga-veethi/800587-quick-commerce.html), there were those who claimed I didn’t understand the new wave. Many felt I was old-fashioned and didn’t understand the millennials.

I doubt if millennials are a new breed, a different race, that they can be manipulated into buying a solution that doesn’t serve their needs. For all the evidence to the contrary, millennials aren’t dumb. And they don’t go that wrong.

But I was wrong on one count. I wondered about the sustainability of the concept of Q-commerce and suspected about its longevity. Even I am taken aback by the speed of its demise. It’s taken less than 10 weeks for the 10-minute delivery start-ups to understand that Marketing 101 still works!