In the latest update, Indians are increasingly purchasing daily necessities and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) more frequently.
Indians Turning To Quick Commerce For Daily Necessities
This change tends to be driven by a growing trend of seeking instant gratification through burgeoning quick commerce, as portrayed in a latest media report.
This shift in consumer behavior is recognized by the mainstream retailers such as Reliance Retail and Spencer’s Retail.
Now, they are focusing on expediting online orders and reducing delivery times.
As a result, E-commerce giant Amazon is accelerating its order turnaround.
Similarly, its rival Flipkart has launched its quick commerce service, Flipkart Minutes.
According to data from research firm Kantar, released this month and cited by ET,
It appears that the Indians are now shopping for FMCG products 156 times a year or once every 56 hours.
This seems to be a significant increase from the 80-90 times recorded around five years ago.
The number of FMCG packs purchased per quarter ranged between 199 and 202 over the past year as compared to 163-179 two years ago.
The senior category head for marketing at Parle Products, Krishnarao Buddha said,“The size of the monthly grocery shopping basket is decreasing annually as consumers opt for need-based purchases due to the convenience of quick commerce and other e-commerce platforms reducing their delivery times.”
He mentioned a 15-20 percent annual increase in FMCG shopping trips or orders.
Further, attributing this to need-based consumption habits and the challenge of limited storage space in smaller homes in metropolitan and large cities.
Following the trend, Amazon has introduced same-day grocery delivery, while Flipkart has soft-launched Flipkart Minutes.
And why not as these services are currently competing in a market dominated by Zomato’s Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, BigBasket’s BBNow, and Zepto.
Shift In Consumer Preferences
In the meantime, Reliance Retail and Spencer’s Retail, both of them are enhancing their order fulfillment speeds.
The country’s largest retail chain plans to expand significantly into hyperlocal deliveries, encompassing not just groceries but other products as well, announced by Dinesh Taluja, Reliance Retail’s chief financial officer.
Considering the same, Reliance launched its hyperlocal venture through the JioMart shopping app, promising grocery deliveries within 45-60 minutes last month.
Moving ahead,Taluja explained, “We’re leveraging our hyperlocal presence for customer acquisition and targeting them for grocery and cross-selling other categories through targeted interventions.”
Adding, “We have a significant advantage with our pan-India store network compared to other online players who spend heavily on customer acquisition.”
There is a shift in preferences as the consumers now expect their planned online purchases to be delivered within an hour, as informed by the Spencer’s Retail chief executive Anuj Singh as he analysts recently.
