There used to be a time, not long ago, when people would visit grocery stores and wet markets once a week to buy groceries and other necessities.
Then supermarkets came into being: redefining the retail shopping experience for consumers across the world. In the 1990s with the advent of the World Wide Web, several internet firms began offering products and services via the internet, marking the start of a new normal, and setting into motion the beginning of the e-commerce era.
The commercial scene changed rapidly as more and more people started embracing e-commerce services.
Soon, big supermarket chains established their e-commerce operations followed by independent retailers, producers and scores of startups.
Due to comparatively low operating costs and tough market competition, e-commerce platforms thrived on competitive pricing and discounts to attract customers, who eventually gained the confidence to transact without physical verification of products.
Throughout the first decade of the new millennium, e-commerce kept gaining prominence.
Though Bangladesh was almost a decade and half late to catch up on the trend, we were quick to adopt the new era of commerce and that too at a time when e-commerce was on the verge of a massive evolution.
Over the past couple of years, e-commerce has gone through a rapid transformation, paving the way for the arrival of q-commerce (quick commerce).
This time, in regards to the new trend of q-commerce, we are not late to catch up with the rest of the world.
A glimpse into q-commerce operations
In the simplest of terms, q-commerce is the natural evolution of e-commerce and is built on the strengths of its predecessor while adding in hyper-localization, speedy delivery, and further convenience in retail shopping that gives consumers a superior ordering experience.
For instance, e-commerce allows consumers to order their goods online and receive delivery within 3-5 days. In some cases delivery time can be reduced to 1-2 days.
This fact encourages larger orders through discounts and free delivery incentives as customers often have to wait patiently for extended periods of time for their goods to arrive.
Q-commerce improves on this, and brings small quantities of goods to customers within a matter of minutes.
It propagates the notion that speed is king, and that nothing is more important than efficiency and convenience.
It might seem surprising to see how quickly e-commerce has evolved in order to make way for q-commerce.
The transition can be owed to technological advancements, improved logistics infrastructure, and a change in lifestyle and preferences of customers.
So, as the internet economy grows and delivery speed becomes more important than ever before, q-commerce takes the front seat in the digital transformation of the retail and delivery sector, which was once reinvented and dominated by e-commerce.
Roots of q-commerce: Demand of time
The practice of commerce is a tale as old as time.
It has evolved in response to continuously changing consumer demands and a thirst for innovation to meet changes in demand.
Despite massive advancements in retail such as the introduction of supermarkets and e-commerce platforms, speed, mass accessibility and convenience, for many years, has been a challenge.
That is where the concept of q-commerce comes in.
The entire process of demand, supply and in-between warehouse management is designed to be seamless.
Each aspect of q-commerce seeks to personify the ideas of efficiency and speed, while catering to the diverse scope of customer choices.
A customer’s q-commerce journey begins once they open a retail application or website such as foodpanda with a need or want in mind.
As the customer scrolls through their options, they become aware of the sheer number of items available for instant delivery with just a tap on the screen.
Customers do not have to plan anything in advance.
The whole concept is targeted at serving the needs of an individual or a small household as opposed to bulk orders that e-commerce promotes.
It is perfectly suitable for individuals or households that might need essentials such as toothpaste or baby products in the middle of the night.
Q-commerce platforms deliver goods from small area-based stores or hyper-local warehouses.
This means products are delivered from nearby locations with short delivery distances instead of centralized warehouses.
As a result, it becomes possible to deliver goods to customers in as little as 20 minutes.
Furthermore, as q-commerce is hyper-local it caters to the preferences of a given area alongside facilitating digital transformation of retailers in those areas.
For instance, foodpanda’s q-commerce operation combines a series of its own hyper-local darkstores (known as pandamart) with smaller area-based merchants and superstores with a presence in a given area.
This means unlike e-commerce, q-commerce provides faster and superior service to consumers while simultaneously enabling thousands of retailers to go digital with few barriers and minimal investment.
The road to q-commerce: The importance of technology and logistics
The rise of q-commerce has been expedited by the pandemic.
Alongside the rising importance of speedy deliveries, q-commerce has proved to be an effective platform to provide instant support to communities in need.
In response to the growing demand of home deliveries, q-commerce platforms quickly responded to the consumers’ need to stay home.
In Bangladesh, foodpanda began its q-commerce operation in April and managed to expand service offering across the country by the end of 2020.
Such escalation of quick-commerce is supported by advancements in logistics technology, machine learning and data science.
As the concept is made possible through extensive use of technology, q-commerce will go through continuous innovations to improve product offering, service quality and customer satisfaction.
Machine learning allows q-commerce platforms to learn from customer behaviour.
As orders are placed and goods are bought, artificial intelligence programs learn the pertinent information.
For instance, it has to learn what products are popular on a given day and how quickly and efficiently said products can be sourced and delivered to a customer’s doorstep.
Adapting to this information and building a broader knowledge base allows for correct estimations in regards to stock and delivery time.
As mentioned previously, good machine learning programs and artificial intelligence are only part of what it takes to establish q-commerce within a given territory.
You also need even access to connectivity, and an abundance of skills and understanding in order to increase the availability and success of a q-commerce platform in a territory.
The necessity of q-commerce
Life is busier than it was ever before.
Think about a typical day in Dhaka: the traffic, the work day, and all the responsibilities a typical adult has to juggle.
Going out for groceries or even medicine sometimes is a hassle.
Q-commerce is a response to the busy or even lazy customer’s demands.
Beyond life being busier, this past year has also taught us that convenience and speed are irreplaceable commodities.
So, in that context it is safe to say that q-commerce is here to stay and shape the future of retail and delivery.
The author is director, dark stores at foodpanda Bangladesh
