Quick Commerce

Also called Q-Commerce and Qcom

Delivery of groceries and everyday products in about ten to thirty minutes from dark stores close to the customer. In India the leaders are Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart and Zepto, with Flipkart Minutes, BigBasket Now and Amazon Now also competing.

Why it matters

For D2C brands in food, beauty, personal care and home it has become a primary sales channel. The trade-off is margin and control: platform commissions and ad spend are high, the shelf rewards only fast sellers, and the platform rather than the brand holds most of the customer data.

For example

A healthy-snacks brand that started on its own website now makes a large share of its sales on Blinkit and Zepto, and plans pack sizes and prices around what sells from a dark store shelf.

Go deeper

What is Quick Commerce and How It's Changing D2C in 2026 Base.com · article A 2026 guide from an order-management software company on how quick commerce works for a D2C brand: dark store assortment, sell-through, commissions and ad spend, and keeping inventory in sync across platforms. Open base.com →

Related terms

Also in Starting Up

See how founders actually handle this on Growing and marketing, part of the Starting Up hub.

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