Pod Insights Finshots Daily The 10-minute delivery promise is gone. What now? About this episode In today’s episode on 15th Jan 2026, we break down whether removing the 10-minute branding really changes how quick commerce businesses like Zepto, Blinkit, or Instamart make money.
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Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Hello folks, you're tuned into Finshots Daily. In today's episode, we break down whether removing the 10-minute branding really changes how quick-commerce businesses like Zepeto, Blinket or Instamart make money. Before we begin, here's a quick word from team Ditto. Life has a way of surprising us and not always in a good way. Sometimes, it's a sudden illness or an unexpected hospital visit that can shake up everything. In India, families still pay about 39% of medical expenses directly from their own pockets and just one hospital's stick can wipe out years of savings. The easiest way to protect yourself is by getting a good health insurance plan. It's way cheaper than footing one huge bill. And if you're unaware where to start, book a free call with Ditto. No spam, just honest, jargon-free guidance.
0:46 Speaker 00 Trusted by over 8 lakh people for their health and term insurance needs. The link is in the description. Now, back to the story.
0:55 Speaker 00 New year didn't start very well for India's quick-commerce market. While you and I were partying and counting down to midnight, gig workers represented by unions went on strike to push back against unpredictable payouts, the lack of social security in their jobs and most importantly, time-bound or 10-minute deliveries that consumers have grown to love. And as you already know, it didn't go in vain. One of their demands was met a couple of days ago, when the union labour minister intervened and asked quick-commerce platforms to do away with the 10-minute deliveries. Blinket blinked first and quietly removed its promise of 10-minute delivery across all platforms. And while no peers have followed suit, at least at the time of recording this story, we'll have to see if they do so eventually.
1:39 Speaker 00 This must have made you wonder, does this change anything for India's quick-commerce sector? After all, if you remember how Zepeto started, you might recall its co-founder, Kaivalya Bhorah, once saying, "Customers love a rapid delivery experience. The data speaks for itself. Once we start delivering in 10 minutes, our NPA shot up and has constantly remained at around 85 with a 50% plus week-on-week user retention rate, which shows an incredibly strong customer love for our product." For context, this was way back when Vora was running Kirana Kart, Zepto's predecessor. Along with Adit Palichha, Zepto's co-founder and CEO, he partnered with nearby Kirana stores to deliver groceries to neighborhoods during the pandemic-induced lockdowns using a simple app.
2:23 Speaker 00 Back then, large online platforms took up to a week to deliver, while local Kirana stores struggled to keep up with the surge in demand. That gap is what pushed Vora and Palichha to build Kirana Kart in the first place. On average, delivery still took around forty-five minutes, but they noticed something interesting. Whenever they managed to deliver faster, say in under fifteen minutes, customer retention improved noticeably. They measured this using NPS or Net Promoter Score, which captures how likely users are to recommend a platform to a friend or colleague. Customers rate this likelihood on a scale of zero to ten, and the score is calculated based on the percentage of promoters, that's those who rate it nine or ten, passives, and detractors, that is those who rate it six or below.
3:09 Speaker 00 That insight is probably what gave the duo the confidence to build an entire business around the idea of ten-minute deliveries. And now that this promise is being rolled back, there are two things that could happen. The first possibility is actually quite simple. Nothing really changes. That's because plainly put, it's just the ten-minute label that's gone, not the underlying promise of fast delivery. The time cap was one of the many marketing hooks and a very successful one that helped customers quantify how quickly groceries could arrive, unlike apparel, gadgets, or electronics. But in reality, deliveries were never really under ten minutes anyway. Most of us have experienced fifteen to twenty-minute deliveries, which is closer to the actual average. As Karan Torani of Elara Capital told NTP Profit,
3:53 Speaker 00 gig workers on these platforms typically fulfill about two-point-five to three orders per hour. That math naturally translates to lead times of twenty minutes or more across platforms. So if orders still arrive within, say, thirty minutes, very little changes. After all, the idea of getting things now, that hit of instant gratification, is something social media and quick commerce have already wired our Brain spore. In fact, if you look at Blinket's performance over the last few quarters, you'll notice that its net order value or NOV or the total value of orders after discounts has consistently grown by about a hundred and seven to hundred and thirty seven percent quarter on quarter over the past year.
4:36 Speaker 00 In its earnings calls, the management has largely attributed this growth to higher order density per dark store, which is a nearby fulfillment hub that looks like a store but serves only online orders, helping platforms deliver faster. And a strategic shift from a marketplace model to an inventory led one. In simple terms, Blinket moved from being a connector, that is linking customers to Kirana stores and earning a commission, to acting more like a retailer itself. Earlier, the inventory belonged to third party retailers who set prices while Blinket handled logistics. Now Blinket procures the inventory, controls pricing and manages delivery end to end.
5:18 Speaker 00 That shift naturally boosts NOV and could improve margins over time. The highlight though is this, nowhere does the management credit ten minute deliveries as a key driver of NOV growth. And if speed alone were doing the heavy lifting, it would have featured prominently in earnings discussions, right? That brings us to the second possibility. What could change is the psychological side of things for consumers and as a result for the business. You see, the ten minute delivery promise quietly messed with our brains in a very predictable way. Behavioral economists call this hyperbolic discounting, which is just a fancy way of saying we value things that happened right now far more than things that happen later, even when waiting is cheaper or more sensible.
6:03 Speaker 00 So, when a platform says, get this in ten minutes, your brain treats speed as something special. You stop comparing prices rationally, even if a competitor offers the same product for a few rupees less, but delivers it tomorrow, you don't think, I could get this tomorrow for free. Instead, you think, I want it now. That's why people are often happy to pay extra delivery fees for Ten minute delivery. In short, speed sells. But now that the marketing label can't be used anymore, platforms may have to find new and possibly more expensive ways to convince people to place orders. This becomes especially tricky for categories like gadgets or apparel, where urgency is naturally lower and ten minutes was never the real need.
6:48 Speaker 00 To maintain the same order volumes, platforms might have to lean more heavily on discounts. And discounts, as you know, are expensive. Many platforms have already tried to limit these while quietly raising platform handling or convenience fees to push unit economics closer to profitability. So, that's one thing we'll have to see. What will platforms do to retain their most impulsive buyers once speed stops doing the psychological heavy lifting? The other thing to watch is how the speed might affect repeat purchases on these apps. Studies on quick commerce show that if a delivery arrives late, people subconsciously wait longer before placing their next order. But when a delivery comes earlier than expected, the opposite happens and they place repeat orders sooner.
7:32 Speaker 00 Blink gets higher net order value hence at this dynamic. Customers seem to trust it more, which makes them comfortable placing bigger orders and ordering more often, largely because it usually delivers when it says it will. So, even if the ten minute label disappears, the underlying idea still holds. Platforms need to deliver quickly and consistently or at least stick to the time they promise on the screen once an order is placed. Without that, frustration creeps in. In other words, even without the ten minute badge, complacency isn't an option. So, yes, losing this marketing tool may not hurt platforms in a very big way. The real challenge though will probably be holding on to the most impulsive buyers.
8:13 Speaker 00 And if in that process, platforms come up with new or more creative ways to signal who delivers the fastest, we are unlikely to see any real change in how quickly quick commerce delivery personnel ride on the roads or the pressure they face to deliver quickly. What do you think?
8:32 Speaker 00 Thank you for listening to today's episode. And if you want to share your feedback or suggestions, do drop us an email to [email protected] . Until next time.
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