Quickness, it's still what they'll shop by

The quick commerce business model survives on 'instant' gratification. So, well-intentioned attempts to slow it down may not work. Disruption brought about in ecommerce by speedy grocery, etc. delivery needs to sustain itself by reaching a bigger basket of produce to the customer's doorstep in around the same time it takes to walk across to the neighbourhood store. Since dark stores can't compete with the kirana-keeper in proximity, speed of delivery will remain a key metric for qcomm. The notion of a 10-min delivery may be unrealistic in densely populated, chaos-ridden cities, but some number will be targeted. And that number will tend to push against the frontier of available logistics.

Regulators can raise concern over delivery timelines qcomm companies set internally. These metrics affect working conditions in the gig economy that's driving urban employment. The issue intersects with urban transport networks that are becoming congested as vehicle ownership rises. Since qcomm is pushing up valuation of the entire ecommerce stack, some form of regulatory intervention is unavoidable. But it must be informed by feedback from municipal authorities that are responsible for creating the infrastructure on which qcomm operates.

Technology will eventually come up with its own set of solutions. Ecommerce has been exploring the idea of automated delivery for a while. Some of these initiatives will become mainstream. Qcomm companies may also need to adapt their business model to the delivery time constraint. Hybrid solutions involving kirana-keepers is a likely fix. Qcomm's phenomenal growth in India affirms the analytical strengths of this form of retailing. With the right smarts, it will come up with the answer to the last-mile problem.