Quick Commerce Not Eating into Kirana Share, Says Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal

Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal recently highlighted that quick commerce is not eating the share of kirana stores. He also mentioned that the growth of the quick commerce space has been a surprise for everyone. 

Goyal was speaking at the ET Startup Awards event that was held on October 5. Speaking at the event, Goyal said that quick commerce companies are eating the share of e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Flipkart. Additionally, Goyal highlighted that other modern retail stories would also be affected. 

He reportedly said, “Blinkit is not really eating into the kiranas at all. It is not even affecting companies like Dmart. I think we're more or less eating into the Amazons and the Flipkarts, the e-commerce sector, as well as the modern retail in the larger cities.” Read: Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal Excluded from Shark Tank as Swiggy Bags Sponsorship

This is not the first time when the company highlighted that it is not taking the share of Kirana stores. In its quarterly results in August, Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa highlighted that most kirana stores offer personalized commerce, such as the khata system, something that quick commerce platforms aren’t able to do. He said, “We know that we are not taking share away from kiranas or from value-focused large retail players like DMart (this was also mentioned in their conference call recently). The value-focused items available in these formats are hard to replicate in our business, especially in categories like staples, where price sensitivity is higher and we don’t have the ability to sell open SKUs that brick and mortar can.” 

This comes at a time when there is an increase in discussion about quick commerce companies harming Kirana stores. Recently, Union Minister Piyush Goyal also highlighted that the unprecedented growth of e-commerce stores is a matter of concern. He also compared India to countries such as the USA, where traditional “mom and pop" saw a massive decline due to the rise of e-commerce companies. He said, “I’m not wishing away e-commerce. It's here to stay." However, one must be cautious about its role and check aspects of it, such as predatory pricing. 

The minister also recently said that quick commerce and kirana stores should collaborate to sustain in the long run. Speaking to CNBC TV18, he said that for quick commerce to be successful in the long run and not sustain losses, it should collaborate with kirana stores. One company that is doing the same is reportedly Flipkart’s quick commerce platform, ‘Flipkart Minutes’.