Quick commerce companies have been rapidly expanding their portfolios after having started off with groceries, but they’re now moving into a territory that many would’ve dismissed as unviable for the space just a year ago — fashion.
Quick commerce companies including Swiggy Instamart, Blinkit and Zepto are making moves to deliver clothing products to users in 10 minutes. Blinkit already has a section on its app in certain locations where it delivers shirts, footwear and accessories. Swiggy Instamart has tied up with FabIndia to deliver its kurtas, while Zepto has partnered with Puma to sell its jerseys, and is looking to expand to other products.
At the beginning of their fashion foray, quick commerce firms seem to be experimenting with selling products that are largely standardized — Jockey’s innerwear and T-shirts, Puma’s athletic wear and FabIndia’s kurtas. These products are well-known, and people likely already know the sizes they wear. As such, they can order these items without trials, and be pleased to receive them in 10 minutes, as opposed to the several days that traditional e-commerce would take.
But expanding fashion beyond such categories won’t be straightforward. As many as 25 percent e-commerce fashion orders in India are returned, either due to sizes mismatches or because buyers simply change their minds on receiving their orders. Quick commerce companies currently don’t have any reverse logistics capabilities, and setting those up — especially while maintain the rapid nature of the space — could be a challenge. As such, quick commerce companies are looking for workarounds to handle returns — they could choose to not accept any returns at all, or have more stringent criteria for accepting them.
Woodland, for instance, is negotiating with e-commerce companies to accept returns at its stores. Shoemaker Liberty, meanwhile, plans to sell only basic products and not fashion through quick commerce platforms to ensure that returns are minimized. “(Because logistics is complicated) we want to sell only very small merchandize like school shoes, chappals and other basic shoes,” an executive said.
But while quick commerce platforms and suppliers will iron out details in due course, it’s apparent that quick commerce already has its eyes on the lucrative fashion segment. Fashion is the second biggest category in e-commerce in India behind electronics, and if quick commerce can take a bite of of it, it could really end up hurting the businesses of traditional e-commerce companies. Quick commerce companies have already begun selling electronics on their platforms, and a move into fashion will be an even bigger foray into the traditional e-commerce space. E-commerce companies, for their part, seem to have woken up to the threat — Flipkart has already launched Flipkart Minutes, the company’s quick commerce play which is selling everything from groceries to laptops in 10 minutes, while Amazon is expected to launch its 10-minute play next year. It remains to be seen how these moves play out, but quick commerce clearly has ambitions to completely upend how goods are sold online in India.