As 10-minute deliveries end, what lies ahead for 'quick' commerce in India?

When quick commerce began in India around six years ago, it altered consumer expectations with an ambitious promise: delivery of groceries, beauty products, and even electronics within just 10 minutes.

The model quickly caught on, with platforms such as Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart leading the way, followed by large e-commerce players like Flipkart and Amazon entering the q-comm marketplace, launching services such as Flipkart Minutes and Amazon Now.

By definition, quick commerce delivers essential items within minutes from local dark stores, in contrast to e-commerce, which typically involves days-long delivery times and a broader product range sourced from distant warehouses.

Now, however, the era of the “10-minute delivery” concept appears to be coming to an end.

The Central government has instructed all quick commerce platforms to abandon fixed delivery timelines. This decision follows discussions between Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and senior executives from companies including Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy, and Zomato.

During the meeting, the minister urged companies to drop the aggressive delivery promise, citing road safety risks for delivery partners, reminding those old enough to remember when Domino's received backlash for its 30-minute or free delivery model, leading to its eventual withdrawal. 

It is part of a broader push by the government to strengthen safety standards and working conditions for gig workers.

The decision came close on the heels of gig workers registering protests in various parts of the country, citing feeling under pressure while delivering and demanding safer working conditions, fairer pay, and more reasonable delivery expectations.

How will “quick delivery” now be defined?

Industry observers say the shift in communication has already been underway.

Sambit Mohanty, executive vice president at McCann Bangalore, a global marketing and advertising firm, says that quick commerce platforms have already moved on from the “10-minute delivery” promise. And consumers are fine with getting orders delivered within 15 minutes, if not 10. 

“Now the communication is focusing on the urgency of the requirement (of a particular item) rather than the '10 minute' claim. Storytelling, as always, needs to highlight this urgency with an emotional angle, which leads to brand memorability. It should never become functional,” he adds.

Saurabh Parmar, a fractional CMO, agrees that the original promise had limited grounding in reality.

“The reality is that 10-minute delivery usually took longer than 10 minutes in practice. Operationally, it was often much longer. It was largely a marketing tagline.” Parmar argues that the larger issue lies in how the companies handled the situation.

“This would have been a much stronger strategic move if the companies had acted first, instead of reacting to regulatory pressure. Gig work is a massive part of India’s economy, and it’s not a segment that can be ignored.”

According to Krishnarao Buddha, marketing specialist and former senior category head of marketing at Parle Products, the "10-minute delivery promise served as a bold and memorable creative hook" that differentiated quick commerce platforms such as Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart in a crowded e-commerce space. 

"It clearly emphasised instant gratification and urban convenience rapidly percolating to Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities as well.”

“Its removal”, he claims, “forces brands to rethink narratives around speed, potentially diluting the aspirational 'magic' that drove viral marketing and consumer trials. This could weaken short-term recall, but it opens doors for sustainable storytelling focused on reliability over extremes, aligning with government priorities on worker safety.”

Will consumers' behaviour change?

Samriddh Dasgupta, chief business officer at Arata, a hair care brand, believes the shift will have little impact on how customers actually use these platforms.

“It's just a change in messaging to become a little bit more compliant and become more humane for delivery workers. I don't believe that customer expectations will change because the platform's promise was fundamentally based on extremely quick delivery, and people will continue to use those platforms since their behaviour patterns have adapted to expect almost instantaneous service.

According to Dasgupta, marketing strategies need only minor adjustments.

“Of course, now you can't promise a 10-minute delivery. You just need to say quick delivery. People will have their own sense of what quick is, and I think the proposal is more a PR exercise rather than an actual exercise in terms of being able to change human behaviour which has been built over the last many years for quick commerce.”

Platforms begin removing the 10-minute tagline

Eternal-owned Blinkit has become the first major player to quietly remove the “10-minute delivery” promise across platforms.

The company has updated its tagline from “10,000+ products delivered in 10 minutes” to “30,000+ products delivered at your doorstep.”

Other platforms, including Zepto, BigBasket and Swiggy Instamart, are expected to follow. Eternal also clarified through a BSE filing that there has been no change in Blinkit’s underlying business model.

Parmar believes this change could help bring back customers who were uncomfortable with the human cost of the ultra-fast model.

“Most consumers are reasonable adults who can plan for a 30-minute wait. Many of those who had reduced their usage because of concerns around delivery pressure would likely have returned to the platform if quick commerce companies had taken this step themselves.”

Buddha agrees. He also emphasises that “this will push quick commerce platforms towards functional as well as emotional storytelling. A functional story could be reliability, or say, 15-30-minute delivery, while emotional stories could be like ‘enjoy your family moments’ or ‘plan instantly’.”

What does this mean for gig workers on the ground?

Dasgupta says the 10-minute benchmark placed enormous strain on delivery partners.

According to him, the 10-minute delivery benchmark was undoubtedly audacious and extraordinarily challenging, as it posed significant risks to both the riders and others on the road.

If this adjustment alleviates some of the stress experienced by riders and reduces pressure on the roads, then it can be considered a positive development.

However, it remains to be seen whether this tweak will be effective, as riders are motivated to complete as many trips as possible due to their incentive structure, which requires continuous delivery. They're used to riding fast. 

“Riders are used to delivering things within the time frame. They'll keep being compliant within that time frame. The riders are not incentivised at any point in time to do fewer trips. So again, narrative versus actual business. The riders are incentivised to do more trips, and by that sheer framework, they will keep doing as many as they can, and consumers will keep getting their goods as quickly as possible.”

Even now, Blinkit continues to display 10-minute delivery estimates in some locations where dark stores are located within 1.4 km, along with a banner stating “short distances allow quick deliveries”.

Earlier, responding to the controversy, Eternal Group CEO Deepinder Goyal defended the fast delivery model, stating that it does not encourage unsafe driving.

In a post on X, Goyal said that delivery partners are not shown customer-facing delivery timers on their apps and are not under direct pressure to meet the 10-minute promise. “Faster deliveries happen because our stores are located close to customers, not because riders are asked to speed,” he wrote, adding that the system is designed to prioritise efficiency over risk.

What’s next for quick commerce?

Parmar believes the shift opens up a larger strategic opportunity for quick commerce players.

“The quick comm alone is not a large enough market to justify the valuations these companies are targeting. Sooner or later, they will need to compete with traditional e-commerce – much like edtech had to compete with conventional education. In today’s technology-driven world, industries inevitably converge.”

He points to scheduled deliveries, including next-day or even two-day options, as a natural expansion route. Platforms such as Zepto and Amazon Fresh already offer scheduled delivery alongside quick delivery, enabling them to broaden their addressable market and compete more directly with traditional e-commerce.

The urgency around the issue escalated after gig workers went on strike on December 31, one of the busiest days of the year, choosing silence as their loudest form of protest.

It remains to be seen if the removal of the 10-minute promise results in safer working conditions, fairer pay, and more realistic expectations on the ground. For now, the change is only two days old, making it too early to assess its real impact on gig workers.