Is quick commerce killing traditional distributors, or do I need both?
Quick commerce and ONDC are eroding the distribution advantage that big FMCG players built over decades, but for most D2C brands they're a complement, not a replacement - dark stores get you fast urban metro visibility while a physical distributor still gets you into the general trade stores and tier-2/3 towns quick commerce hasn't reached yet. Run both: quick commerce for immediate metro reach and brand discovery, distributors for depth and geography quick commerce can't cover economically.
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3 resources, 3 India-specific, 2 link-checked.
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✓ Link checkedIndiaFreeAdvanced
An academic/business-school perspective on how ONDC and quick commerce are structurally eroding the decades-old distribution advantage of large FMCG incumbents - directly relevant to whether a small D2C brand still needs to build traditional distribution at all.
A retail-tech vendor's current, plain-English guide to ONDC aimed at sellers deciding whether to list - covers the mechanics without assuming you already understand India's open network commerce protocol.
A practitioner's operator-level walkthrough of scaling offline distribution specifically for a D2C-born brand, distinguishing modern trade from general trade with the practical trade-offs of each.
