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The value conscious Indian consumer would rather wait for their grocery than pay delivery fee for it, according to a survey conducted by community and poll platform for governance, public and consumer interest, LocalCircles. 

The survey also indicates that unless quick commerce startups were willing to offer discounts and differentiation, they might not be able to sustain. 

Only 3% of the 20,751 respondents said that they opted for delivery timelines of less than 30 minutes for groceries ordered online and were willing to pay for it. Nearly 11% respondents said they were willing to pay a small delivery fee for delivery of groceries between 30 minutes to 3 hours. Nearly 33% wanted products delivered within 24 hours at no delivery fee for a certain order value and 25% sought grocery services offering delivery within 3 days at no extra cost. The remaining 28% respondents preferred a delivery slot as per their convenience. 

“The survey indicates that value, quality of products and service matters, while timeline of deliveries do not matter as much,” Sachin Taparia Founder and Chairman of LocalCircles told YourStory.

“The national pulse indicates that the Total Addressable Market (TAM) for quick commerce players is small. Unless they are able to meet the price point and raise additional capital from investors, the sector is looking at consolidation,” Sachin added.

The survey further indicates that on an aggregate basis, 52% of those buying groceries online purchase on a monthly or weekly basis, while 23% bought groceries online on need basis. Only 17% of the shoppers ordered online groceries when they needed it to be delivered urgently.

As part of the findings, LocalCircles also conducted a pilot in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of Noida between July 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022 to rate grocery delivery platforms on the basis of quality, value, service, selection and customer experience. The 2,600 ratings indicated that Bigbasket, Amazon Fresh, Swiggy Instamart and Dunzo stood out for quality of goods, while JioMart and Flipkart offered the best discounts on MRP of products. The pilot indicated that Zepto and Blinkit were the fastest in terms of delivery timelines, delivering orders within 30 minutes. 

“Quality as a parameter is of high importance to consumers because when shopping for groceries, especially fresh produce online as they cannot touch and feel the fruits and vegetables and pick the unit of their choice,” said the report. It further added that value for money was the second most important consideration for consumers.

The market size of quick commerce in India is set to grow to $5.5 billion by 2025, according to a report published by research consulting firm Redseer in March, 2022.

However, the current funding environment has seen investors playing cautious as the sector looks for a path to profitability.