Q-Diwali!

Just came back from India after visiting family during the festive season, and amongst all the traffic madness and crowded malls, the whole experience was incredible, exhilarating and simulating.

While Swiggy and Zomato apps were lifesavers for a foodie like me, allowing me to avoid crowds and congested roads, what truly amazed me this trip is how Q-Commerce has seamlessly integrated into everyday life for almost everyone I came across.

"Faster is Better" seems to be the theme now

But it's not just about food now. Since my last trip to India just about 6 months ago, Retail Q-Commerce scene there seems to have exploded exponentially. As with food delivery, there seems to be a competition on who will deliver retail shopping the quickest as well, be it Zepto or Swiggy's instamart or Zomato's Blinkit.

What blew my mind was how easy is it to order something that you usually wouldn't connect to a Quick Buy.

Like how I realized at the very last minute that I didn't pack my traditional Indian top - Kurta, just before leaving for a Diwali get together. On a whim, I fired up the Blinkit app and managed to buy a brand new Kurta from FABINDIA LIMITED that was delivered to me in 12 minutes! Yes, 12 minutes!

And while I didn't try Zepto, this caught my eye:

On my brother's birthday, I ordered a Photo cake late at night and to my utter amazement, it was delivered within 40 mins, beautifully packed, replete with the image I had uploaded just mins ago!

Diwali time is all about meeting friends & family, exchanging mithai (sweets), eating good food and offering prayers to Goddess Laxmi and Lord Ganesha.

On the auspicious day of Dhanteras, just a day before diwali, Indians usually buy Silver or Gold in any form. Try going to Mustafa Singapore's jewellery section around Diwali, you'd think they're handing out Gold bars for free!

Obviously I realized that too late as well and just the thought of going out to the shops to jostle with the crowds to buy a simple silver coin was enough to give me anxiety

Guess who came to my rescue again? Blinkit !

And just like that, I had my Silver coin delivered to me in 10 mins!

The 7 days I spent in India were full of amazing new discoveries and experiences of the exploding Q-Commerce segment for both food and retail. There are challenges but for some reason it all works well for now.

I would have expressed concern about how these delivery riders need to break traffic rules, drive dangerously at breakneck speeds in crazy traffic on crowded roads where everyone seems to be honking non stop at nothing in particular...but then I remembered literally EVERYONE drives like that on Delhi-NCR roads!

Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous Diwali!

Deepinder Goyal