The quick-commerce space is evolving at a pace that can scarcely be believed.
Blinkit has begun offering item returns in 10 minutes. Customers will be able to return an item in case there’s a size or fit issue, and a delivery executive will pick up the product from their homes. As with deliveries, the products will be picked up in 10 minutes.
“Introducing Easy Returns on Blinkit!” Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa posted on X. “Customers can initiate a return/ exchange in case of a size or fit issue with the delivered product. This solves a crucial problem of size anxiety for categories like clothing and footwear. The cool part – return or exchange will happen within 10 minutes of raising a request! We’ve been testing this in Delhi NCR for a couple of weeks and have now enabled it for Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune. More cities to be added soon!” he added.
The introduction of returns by quick commerce companies could pose a serious challenge to traditional e-commerce firms. Thus far, even as quick commerce had been treading into e-commerce’s territory with the introduction of clothing and footwear products, it differed in one crucial aspect — while e-commerce companies allowed easy returns, there was no provision for returns within quick commerce. As many as 30 percent of fashion shipments in India are reportedly returned, so the ability to return products could be a crucial determinant of customers choosing which platform to purchase from.
Now quick-commerce has begun offering returns in 10 minutes, which is much faster than the week-long return times that e-commerce firms offer. On top of this, quick commerce companies deliver items in 10 minutes, again significantly faster than e-commerce companies, which can take several days. If quick-commerce can price items at a similar level to e-commerce companies, and offer a similarly large selection, they could quickly take away market share from traditional e-commerce.
But there could be challenges to offering returns. A very high percentage of e-commerce orders are returned, so these returns will hit the bottom-lines of quick commerce companies by creating an expense item that thus far didn’t exist. Also, quick commerce companies deliver goods from dark stores in urban areas — it could be hard for them to match the range of offerings that traditional e-commerce retailers offer. But Blinkit has fired its first salvo by looking to disrupt e-commerce with 10-minute returns — it’ll be interesting to see how the e-commerce industry adapts in response.