Sudhakar Adapa, founder and CEO of BIA Brands, explained the difference between e-commerce and quick commerce and how quick commerce will have to be ‘not so quick’ to become sustainable. “E-commerce is thriving these days while quick commerce or q commerce is probably the new version of e-commerce. The fundamentals of business are going to be the same, it’s just about how we are going to deliver, that is going to change,” Mr Adapa said at the NDTV World Summit 2024.
He also said the definition of quick will have to change for the model to be sustainable.
“Is quick commerce going to be a sustainable thing? I would say yes and no. Yes, because it will be another kind of commerce which will survive but I think the definition of quick will change. Right now the consumer wants everything to be delivered in under 10 minutes and if you say 20 minutes, the consumer will say I can’t wait for 10 more minutes. India has a huge population density which is why it is one of the few countries where quick commerce worked. But, I think the definition of quick will change from 10 minutes to 60 minutes because not everything can be delivered in 10 minutes time. If this model has to be sustainable it will become not-so-quick commerce,” he said.
Mr Adapa said that in today’s day and age social media has become a potent weapon for brands: “The use of social media is across all the sectors. As brands, if we have to survive then social media has become a potent weapon and the advantage of private labels is such that it is actually giving space to smaller brands to compete with Unilever and P&Gs of the world. For example, if I had to launch a cosmetics brand 10 years ago, you need to own a brand, you need to formulate yourself, you need to have a manufacturing plant, a quality control department, you need to control R&D, the whole ecosystem has huge costs and it’s not feasible for a small entrepreneur to launch a company. Now today if you want to launch a beauty brand, all you need to do is maybe go to a contract manufacturer, make some sampling, get some 1,000 pieces up, put it up online and boom you have a brand. It has become so easy these days.”
He, however, also stressed that “everything has its own advantages and disadvantages”.
“The advantage is that you could pull your company with no capital, if you have a great product, you could build a company with almost next to nothing. The flip side is the kind of competition is there in the market. Differentiation has become really difficult for us. But the good thing is that the customers are spoilt for choice. they have great products and great prices there. Customers are making merry at the time, enjoying the great discounts,” Mr Adapa said.
