Mint Primer: Can Blinkit & co take on Amazon in electronics?

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Doorstep grocer Blinkit’s been selling Sony PlayStation 5, iPhone 16 and popular video game franchise, FC 25. Quick commerce’s foray into electronics sales has raised eyebrows—and questions—about the implications for local electronics stores and e-commerce.

Apparently yes. At the core of delivering an item worth lakhs in a few minutes is marketing. Thanks to a rising demand in urban India, quick commerce is a highly competitive industry with slim margins.

So for most firms, a heavy marketing budget only cuts into profitability. Selling expensive yet popular gadgets, on this note, makes for an effective marketing campaign that eventually leads to indirect sales. Think of this as akin to when e-commerce giant Amazon partnered with German-owned British carmaker, Mini Cooper, to offer doorstep deliveries of the expensive hatchbacks.

Quick commerce was met with scepticism when it was launched. But it’s become a major revenue driver for firms. Yet, most items sold on the likes of Zomato’s Blinkit, Swiggy’s Instamart, unicorn startup Zepto and more are low-value, low-margin items.

With expensive electronics, these ventures are looking to diversify into higher-value items—which would be key to future growth in profitability and sustainability of the overall business model. On the other hand, Flipkart has already begun quick commerce while Amazon is about to—forcing the sector to prepare for how wealthy rivals may affect the industry. E-commerce already sells headphones worth ₹1.4 lakh, televisions worth ₹10 lakh, and gold bars.