Article

FMCG Giants Lose Distribution Edge as ONDC, Quick Commerce Reshape Market

Forbes India / SPJIMR · forbesindia.com Free Advanced India

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.

  • ONDC and quick commerce are eroding the distribution moat that large FMCG players built over decades.
  • Smaller, newer brands can now access routes to market that used to require years of distributor relationships.
  • The shift favours brands that can assemble a hybrid route-to-market rather than build one from scratch.
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The question it answers

  1. Is quick commerce killing traditional distributors, or do I need both?

Read with it

  1. A practitioner's operator-level walkthrough of scaling offline distribution specifically for a D2C-born brand, distinguishing... medium.com Article Scaling Offline Distribution Like a D2C Brand in India - Part 2 Sameer Lodha
  2. A retail-tech vendor's current, plain-English guide to ONDC aimed at sellers deciding whether to list - covers the mechanics... vasyerp.com Article What Is ONDC? A 2026 Guide for Indian Retailers Vasyerp
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