Q-commerce is the new e-commerce?

The future of e-commerce is here. The dynamics of business are changing quickly. Things were quite good and normal until COVID-19 came. Many businesses fell into pandemic bankruptcy. Iconic brands like Lord and Taylor, Ascena Retail and Aldo faced huge financial losses.?

According to Profit Pakistan, there was a 60% fall in the sales of brick and mortar stores during COVID-19. On the other hand, this led to a sharp rise in the sale of e-commerce businesses. Amazon’s profit increased about 200% through the covid-19. Similarly, the online food delivery giant, Food Panda, experienced a 518% rise in its revenue and a massive rise in orders by 428% according to sources.

People did not accept e-commerce when it was introduced in 1960 and recorded the first online retail transaction in 1994. Traditional ways of buying and selling goods and services was the only thing known to people. E-commerce came and revolutionized the entire landscape of how people can buy and sell as well as opening many possibilities to do your businesses.

E-commerce was different from what it is now as compared to when it was stated. At that time, e-commerce businesses were highly dependant on large warehouses where the goods were kept waiting to be delivered. The delivery time was also slow at that time. It took days to deliver the product. Trucks were mostly used to deliver the products.

Over time, things changed and the speed of delivering goods increased. Days became hours and motorcycles or bicycles became a means of delivering goods. That is how e-commerce changed to Q-commerce I;e quick commerce.

Race has changed. It is about time now and not money IMO. The ability to deliver the product in the shortest time possible is something that counts now. Covid-19 particularly has made q-commerce the star in current times. The term, q-commerce is getting famous now. There are others terms as well like M-commerce, Social-commerce and e-tailers. Some local examples of q-commerce are PandaMart, Bykea, and Careem services.

The strategy to be adopted when having a q-commerce business is somehow different. It is important to know whether the product you are dealing with can be quickly delivered or not. Food Panda aims to get the food delivered to the customer within minutes and for that to happen, they only have vendors who are quick and reliable as well.

With the changing business landscape, the focus has shifted towards digital and the use of machine learning to hyper-target the customer. An example can be of Uber Air which uses drones to deliver food. Similarly, Amazon Prime is making use of drones to do air drone delivery.

The logistics of delivering goods will be completely changed in few years. Another example of a company using a drone for delivery is Wing which deals in small package delivery. Moreover, UPS, the giant courier business is making use of drones to deliver medical supplies in the U.S.?

Q-commerce became know because of the food and grocery delivery as food is usually not that difficult to carry on motorcycles and can be delivered quickly.?

Businesses are now realizing the importance of having an E-commerce department in the company after seeing the adverse effects the strict lockdowns had on the overall landscape of businesses.

The use of technology in delivering products is the need of an hour and cannot be ignored. We are living in a digital age and therefore it is important to have innovation in the business and more use of technology for further success.