Indians are doing online FMCG shopping over three times more frequently than they did a year ago. The staggering rise in online shopping occasions or trips — to 61% in October-December 2024 from just 19% in the year-ago period, according to market research firm Kantar’s Asia Pulse Report — has been triggered by the quick-commerce boom and has prompted fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies to recast their sales channels.
That people, especially in urban areas, prefer convenience to cost in FMCG purchases was evident from the rise of quick commerce in the country, but the rapid shift has forced businesses to reorient their strategies: grocery retailers are now offering higher discounts or making quick deliveries, and q-comm platforms are accelerating their operations.
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The rise in online shopping trips in India is in stark contrast to that in China, which also has a thriving quick commerce market. There, online shopping trips remained largely stable, hovering around 12-14%, according to the report.
The market researcher said that much of this growth was led by the quest for instant gratification.
According to the report, the share of kiranas, or traditional trade, has dropped to 79% in the December 2024 quarter from 81% a year ago. The drop has been gradual, with the share slipping to the level of 80% in the previous two quarters. Some of these kirana shopping have moved to online, with the share of e-commerce (including q-commerce) growing from 2% to 3% in the past one year.
The share of supermarkets, however, has remained intact at 8% for now. Grocery retailers such as Avenue Supermarts, which runs DMart stores, Reliance Retail and Spencer’s Retail have called out intense competition from quick commerce at their metro outlets in recent quarters. These retailers have also responded with higher discounts (DMart) and launching q-comm operations using their network of stores in select markets (Reliance Retail and Spencer’s Retail) in the last few months.
Traditional traders and distributors, on their part, have been lobbying with the government and asking consumer goods companies to adopt fair pricing and margin strategies when distributing their products across channels, including q-commerce. For perspective, q-commerce constitutes over a third of an FMCG company’s online share today,
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