Good Morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],

Quick commerce has had its Goliaths for a while. Now, it’s starting to welcome a few Davids. 

At least in terms of the product categories being sold. 

Quick commerce’s evolution in India has been one of near-ceaseless expansion—in service coverage, in revenues if not consistent profits, and most visibly, in the sheer range of products they sell. India’s largest quick commerce platforms may have started out dabbling in groceries, but they now offer a huge range of products across electronics, apparel, and even home appliances. 

The presence of some of these items, to be frank, defies reason. 

I mean, who on Earth wants a new air-conditioner delivered within the hour? 

But… there they are. And nevermind that the service professional who has to install the thing will only show up the next day. 

The incumbents in quick commerce have spent the past year or so adding category after category to their main apps. 

But some of the newer entrants are choosing to go against the grain. Like, 180-degrees against. 

Think Slikk Club, which delivers fashion in 60 minutes in Bengaluru and recently raised $10 million. Only one category, nothing else. Or Swish, for food delivery, whose posters I see everywhere in my home locale in the city. Or Snabbit, for home services, which secured $19 million in funding just a week ago. 

Verticalisation seems to be the new flavour of the season. But why? Won’t big players with multiple categories do better than niche single-product operations? They have scale, after all, and all the benefits that come with it. That was what Praveen Gopal Krishnan and Rohin Dharmakumar set out to explore in the latest edition of Two by Two. Joining them for the discussion were Sanjay Ramakrishnan, founder and general partner at Multiply Ventures, and Madhav Kasturia, founder and CEO of  Zippee.

Two By Two • EPISODE 45

Are we seeing the unbundling of quick commerce?

Moving from being an everything store to having separate apps for everything?

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A lot of the conversation was centred around what large multi-category players like Blinkit, Bigbasket, Instamart, and Zepto simply can’t do. And why getting curation right is critical. Sanjay brought some of his insights from his time as an operator at Myntra, and his current role as a VC at Multiply Ventures, which also happens to be one of the early investors in Slikk.

Sanjay also spoke about how Slikk’s target customer base is quite distinct (Gen Z and early millennials) and how the company has been trying to experiment with new features and offerings to test for new opportunities. 

One such experiment, for instance, is a try-and-buy option which can be enabled for Rs 25—a clever workaround for the rampant return rates in online fashion. 

Every category Madhav mentioned has a different kind of issue that needs to be solved. For example, pharma needs solid compliance. The logistics for furniture delivery are significantly different from conventional quick commerce. Bigger quick commerce companies just cannot dedicate enough focus for niche problems like these. 

It’s too soon to say anything about whether smaller, more focused players can wedge themselves into these gaps and grow. Right now, there’s still a camp of people who don’t believe that quick commerce as a business makes sense.

But I’d like to ask you one question after you’re done listening to the episode. 

Towards the end, Rohin notes: “Everything is just stages of unbundling followed by rebundling.”

So, do you think there’s a future where many more category players emerge, only to eventually get rolled up or acquired by the bigger players?

Write with your thoughts and suggestions to [email protected]. We’ll see you again next week. 

Regards,
Hari Krishna

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