Tech-savvy customers are being lured by Indian grocery startups with the promise of deliveries within 10 minutes, sparking a boom in "quick commerce", but heating up concerns about road safety as bike riders scramble to meet tight deadlines.
Competition is already intense in India's $600-billion grocery retailing industry, steered by Amazon, Walmart's Flipkart and Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance.
SoftBank-backed Blinkit and its rival Zepto are now hiring staff and opening stores in their bid to grab a share of the market by offering the convenience of delivery in 10 minutes, far lower than the hours, or days competitors take.
Their mission: pack groceries within a few minutes at so-called dark stores, or small warehouses in densely populated neighbourhood buildings, and send bike riders to nearby locations with about seven minutes to spare.
As activity grows, research firm RedSeer says India's quick commerce sector, worth $300 million last year, will swell 10-15 times to touch $5 billion by 2025.
Blinkit and Zepto, started by two 19-year-old dropouts from Stanford, have caught consumers' fancy, satisfying cravings for food and impulse shopping, as well as urgent needs for daily supplies.
For customers the deliveries are very convenient and has made a lifestyle change.
The unbeatable convenience of rapid deliveries is evident in Europe and the United States, where companies such as Turkey's Getir and Germany's Gorillas are expanding fast. India's accident-prone roads though make it a dangerous business.
Unsafe Roads, Delivery challenges
Even in cities, most roads are riddled with potholes, while cattle or other animals straying into traffic present a frequent challenge for motorists, who often violate basic rules.
Last year, the World Bank said India had a death every four minutes on its roads. Crashes kill about 150,000 people each year.
Drivers in the key cities of Mumbai, New Delhi and Gurugram said they faced pressure to meet delivery deadlines, which often led to speeding, for fear of being rebuked by store managers, a statement often ignored and rejects by the companies which employ them.
The concerns reflect the dark side of India's booming gig economy, in which workers often say they feel short-changed or battle tough working conditions.
But, unlike most foreign companies that charge $2 to $3 a delivery, deliveries by Indian startups are mostly free in a nation with a population of 1.4 billion potential customers.
Deliveries on New Year's Eve included more than 43,000 cans of fizzy drinks, a Blinkit investor said on Twitter.
-Reuters