Speaking at the ET Soonicorns Summit in Bengaluru on Friday, Menon said, “Kiranas are here to stay. They give you convenience and credit. Kirana stores will start becoming more efficient and will start delivering to homes. They won’t have an app but for now, they’ll deliver efficiently.”
Menon said he was “in complete denial” about the quick commerce model. “Gladly, I have been proven wrong… Customers are lapping it up – speed is something that the customers are absolutely loving, specifically talking about grocery,” he said.
BigBasket, the largest e-grocer known for slotted deliveries, has pivoted to a full-scale quick commerce platform as the sector sees rising demand for rapid deliveries, ET reported on August 27.
On the changing landscape in the quick commerce sector, Menon said that consumers now prefer speed over price.
“Grocery used to be a fairly planned activity. It used to be monthly, then it became weekly. We’re finding now that customers are switching to quick commerce, as ‘kitchen stocking’ has vanished as a practice,” she said.
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Asked about the influx of capital in the rapid delivery ecosystem, Menon said, “Solid execution is the key to quick commerce, you cannot throw money at it.”“The space is behaving differently. Availability of products and supply chain efficiency is important,” he added.
Starting today, the latest series of Apple’s iPhone 16 series went on sale in India. Quick commerce platforms like Blinkit and BBNow are offering delivery within minutes in partnership with Apple retailers. Menon said that BigBasket was selling three to four iPhones every minute.
Blinkit, on the other hand, sold nearly 300 iPhones till 10.30 am. “We started delivering iPhones at 8 AM – and we’re going to cross the 300 mark in a couple of minutes,” Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa posted on X.