Around 9 p.m. on a weekday in Bengaluru’s Indiranagar, Rhea Agarwal was waiting for a deliveryman who would soon be waiting for her.

The IT consultant had a client meeting the next morning. Her blazer was stained. The mall was an hour away in traffic, and regular e-commerce, with its promises of delivery “by Friday”, was irrelevant. So she opened Slikk, one of a handful of apps now offering fashion at quick-commerce speed.

Three blazers arrived within 40 minutes; Agarwal kept one and returned two. While she tried them on, the delivery partner lingered outside the door. This kind of “try and buy” is no longer unusual. In some apartment complexes, riders wait in corridors or parking lots; in others, security guards time the exchange.

Slikk, Myntra’s M-Now, Newme Zip and a cluster of newer platforms rely on this model—formally or otherwise—to make speed useful in fashion. Customers order multiple sizes or styles and return what does not work. Convenience rises, but so do costs. A rider who waits outside a flat, for instance, completes fewer deliveries in a day.

Stories like Agarwal’s are usually told as proof of convenience or clever logistics. What has changed is the kind of company now willing to absorb the friction that comes with it.

In November, Decathlon began pilotingBusiness StandardDecathlon India eyes 10-city qcom push, aims to double market share by 2030 two-hour deliveries across 10 Indian cities, starting with sportswear and a narrow slice of apparel. The move followed a smaller experiment through Eternal’s (formerly Zomato) Blinkit in 2024. This time, the company is building the quick-commerce capability into its own channels.

That choice carries weight because Decathlon is not a newcomer testing ideas for attention. Its India business has been built over a decade, with more than 100 stores, private labels, local manufacturing and tight control over pricing. In FY25, India revenues edged up by 3% to just over Rs 4,100 crore, even as profits swung into a loss (Rs 65 crore loss in FY25 after ~Rs 200 crore profit in FY24). 

With less room for indulgent experiments and more pressure to make each one count now, Decathlon’s decision to push two-hour delivery—across more cities and with greater intent than most fashion quick-commerce startups—has drawn notice.