The mad rush into quick-commerce was thus far the domain of startups and e-commerce-first companies, but 150-year-old groups are also joining in.
The Tata group is poised to enter the 10-minute delivery space, ET reports. The group will enter the quick-commerce space through its digital platform Tata Neu. The service will be branded as Neu Flash, and is currently being rolled out to a select group of users. Neu Flash will sell grocery, electronics and fashion.
Neu Flash will use Tata’s existing brands to make products available to users in 10 minutes. For groceries, Neu Flash will rely on Tata-owned Big Basket, which has recently formally pivoted to being a quick-commerce first platform. For electronics, Neu Flash will rely on Tata’s Croma stores, while Tata Cliq will handle fashion and lifestyle products. The service is currently being piloted to a small group of users, but will be more broadly launched in a few weeks.
Tata is the latest entrant into the quick commerce space. The model had been pioneered in India by Zepto in late 2021 after finding tracation during the coronavirus lockdowns. Not long after, grocery delivery company Grofers had changed its name to Blinkit, and begun focusing exclusively on 10-minute deliveries. Around this time, Swiggy had also launched its 10-minute delivery service, Swiggy Instamart. All these companies saw plenty of demand for quick deliveries, and this prompted other players to enter the space. Earlier this year, Flipkart had launched its 10-minute delivery play named Flipkart Minutes, and Amazon is set to launch its own 10-minute delivery service starting early next year. Reliancem meanwhile, is too is looking to launch its own 10-15 minute deliveries through JioMart.
Amidst this mad dash into the quick commerce space, the Tata group also seems to be making its own play with Neu Flash. The Tata group does seem to have the basics to quickly launch its own quick commerce venture — it can deliver groceries through Big Basket’s dark stores, and also has a vast network of Croma stores for delivering electronics. It can look to leverage its other brands, like 1mg, and also beging delivering medicines in 10 minutes.
But the Tatas might be too late to the quick commerce game, like they’d been late with their super app. In spite of having the same advantages, and a frenetic promotional campaign during the IPL, Tata Neu’s super app never really took off, and has largely failed to make a dent in the e-commerce space. The market for quick-commerce is also extremely crowded, and most users seem to be rapidly settling on their favourite platforms — Tata Neu might find it hard to bring something new to the table to pull customers away from existing options. And while the Tata Group does have large chains selling goods, it doesn’t currently have a logistics fleet — which is the backbone of a quick-commerce business — to efficiently deliver them. The Tata Group has thrown its hat into the quick commerce ring, but it’ll have to out-compete and out-execute many seasoned players to be able to make a dent in the space.