With quick commerce gaining traction among consumers, companies are racing to offer faster delivery of their products. Electronics retail chain Croma on Tuesday introduced same-day delivery for air conditioners and coolers across 30+ cities, further intensifying competition in the consumer durables segment.
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The Tata-owned brand’s latest move comes just ahead of the summer season. Croma announced that orders placed before 6 pm — whether through its offline stores, website, or the Tata Neu app — will be eligible for same-day delivery. This initiative builds upon its existing ‘Croma Express’ service, which already provides expedited delivery for select electronic products.
Croma’s competitor Vijay Sales had previously launched a similar service, offering same-day shipping for ACs and coolers on orders placed before 4 pm, along with installation by brand technicians within 24 hours.
The growing trend of accelerated delivery is particularly significant in high-value categories like consumer durables, where retailers like Croma and Vijay Sales may hold a competitive advantage over pure-play quick commerce firms.
While platforms such as Zomato-owned Blinkit have experimented with selling coolers and their CEO Albinder Dhindsa recently said that strong consumer interest in ACs, q-commerce firms face substantial logistical challenges in handling bulky and high-cost products. “We had decided in January that air conditioners are not something that we’ll be able to sell,” Dhindsa had said in an earlier interview. “And come March, people were searching for ACs 15,000 times a day.”
Despite increasing demand, delivering large appliances via q-commerce remains a complex and costly proposition. Unlike groceries or small electronics, air conditioners and coolers require specialised warehousing, careful handling, and in many cases, installation support. For q-commerce players, the cost of stocking and transporting these items could outweigh potential revenue gains.
E-commerce giants like Amazon have managed to provide next-day and 48-hour delivery for ACs and other electronics, often bundling purchases with free installation. Appliance manufacturers like Whirlpool also offer 48-hour delivery for direct website orders. However, quick commerce firms, which primarily rely on hyperlocal warehouses or dark stores, may find it difficult to achieve similar efficiencies at scale.
Retail experts argue that companies like Croma and Vijay Sales are better positioned to capitalise on this trend, given their existing infrastructure and established relationships with appliance brands.
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