by ANANYA BHATTACHARYA
Quick commerce promises instant convenience, but it’s driven more by deep discounts and habit-building than real need.
Amazon has placed its bet on a service that has struggled to thrive in the West.
On March 17, the company started testing a 30-minute delivery service in select locations across the U.S, alongside one- and three-hour delivery options across thousands of American cities.
The move marks a renewed push into quick commerce — a model that has struggled to take hold in Western markets.
Amazon hasn’t entered this experiment blind. It has been running a 10-minute delivery service in India since June 2025, and a 15-minute service in the United Arab Emirates since October. Those markets offer a glimpse into both the promise — and the pitfalls — of ultrafast delivery.
China has built the largest quick-commerce market in the world at $125 billion. Around one in four people in China use these services. Around 200 million workers, up to 40% of China’s urban workforce, rely on digital platforms for employment.
India is inundated with ultrafast delivery services, with standalone apps BlinkIt and Zepto leading the pack. The segment has been one of the most-funded tech startup sectors in the past few years.
Experts believe these platforms have managed to “manufacture” the need for ultrafast deliveries by offering deep discounts rather than solving a real problem.
Companies trained consumers to expect instant fulfillment, whether or not the need was truly urgent.”
“A large part of the category was also manufactured through aggressive subsidy, convenience marketing, and habit formation,” Kartik Hosanagar, a tech and marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, told Rest of World. “Companies trained consumers to expect instant fulfillment, whether or not the need was truly urgent.”
Quick commerce accounts for just 1%–2% of all trade in India, even after massive cash burn to increase speed and offer deep discounts. Price discounting in quick commerce is 6%–9%, compared with 2%–5% for general trade, data from management consultancy Kearney shows. India’s quick-commerce market, currently less than a tenth of China’s, has just 12 million gig workers.
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