Amazon Pilots 15-Minute Delivery in India (techcrunch.com) 24
An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon on Tuesday said it is piloting a quick commerce service in India that will see the U.S. tech giant delivering grocery and other items in 15 minutes or less.
[...] The quick-commerce model -- delivering items to customers within 10 to 15 minutes -- hasn't worked in most parts of the world, but it's increasingly finding success in India, where a range of retailers and internet firms, from food delivery giant Swiggy to online cosmetics platform Nykaa, are gearing up their supply chain ecosystems to accommodate for faster deliveries.
[...] The quick-commerce model -- delivering items to customers within 10 to 15 minutes -- hasn't worked in most parts of the world, but it's increasingly finding success in India, where a range of retailers and internet firms, from food delivery giant Swiggy to online cosmetics platform Nykaa, are gearing up their supply chain ecosystems to accommodate for faster deliveries.
Re: Deliverloo (Score:1)
"off topic?!"
I think you'll find that when India is concerned poo is NEVER "off topic."
Delivery (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
They had it in Tokyo some years ago, don't know if it's still going. Never tried it because you could pick up in store for free and they were open until 10 PM anyway.
With Amazon they need to get the cost of delivery down, not make it faster. I'm the UK you need to spend £35 to get "free" delivery, or is a blanket £5 which is ridiculous. Prime and sod off as well, the only reason to have it is Star Trek and The Boys.
Re: (Score:3)
They had it in Tokyo some years ago, don't know if it's still going. Never tried it because you could pick up in store for free and they were open until 10 PM anyway.
With Amazon they need to get the cost of delivery down, not make it faster.
I suspect in India it will involve a massive set of delivery drivers who get paid pennies to grab an item and go. If one can't make the grade, there are plenty more replacements. Amazon can build the tech to assign drivers, track them and pay/penalize them based on performance; much like how they do that for teh US last mile franchisees, except in India it may more likely be an Uber model rather than a company with hired drivers. One advantage for Amazon with teh Uber modle is they could offer a low star
and after one of the pitting drivers crashes and k (Score:2)
and after one of the pitting drivers crashes and kills someone?
Re: (Score:2)
and after one of the pitting drivers crashes and kills someone?
Amazon will claim they are not employees but independent contractors and thus have no liability for anything that happens.
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I'm the UK you need to spend £35 to get "free" delivery,
Used to be 20 which felt reasonable. Now its just crazy.
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I'm pretty sure Amazon doesn't want to make it cheaper. Free shipping is just an arbitrary value set - the cost is already embedded in the price.
It's just set at a level where the casual shoppers can spend the time to find
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't know, but it kind of reminds me of Wile. E. Coyote.
You know where he would order a pair of rocket shoes to catch the road runner, and it would be delivered just in time for him to strap the shoes on as the road runner ran by?
It's funny how close to reality this feels right now, when as a child I found it funny because of how unrealistic it was.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Delivery (Score:4, Interesting)
Does every shop need to keep a small army of delivery people on hand to service this? If something can be brought to you in 15 minutes that obviously going to carry a premium and surely its easier to just go get it? I suppose Indian people are know for having lots of extra cash and nothing to spend it on though so maybe its a solution to that.
The system is largely in place already but only really works in developing nations where you've a large number of people who are willing to take menial (meaning: shit) jobs really, really cheaply.
I saw this a lot in Colombia, the Rappi riders would sit around popular areas chinwagging and waiting for a delivery job, I see the same thing here in the UK but in far smaller numbers. So obviously this is the kind of thing that will only work in major population centres.
As for wanting to pay more, that's not such a stretch as it's often not that much more and Asian cultures are even worse with the "I want it now" attitude than western ones and won't consider that waiting a few hours and picking it up on your way home will save them a few Rupees.
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It's not just developing nations. They have low-wait delivery services [youtube.com] in Europe too.
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If it's anything like Londistan then they'll import large numbers of migrants from neighbouring countries and put them on Deliveroo bicycles. Who will drive like maniacs on the pavements, to avoid the traffic.
Unrealistic (Score:2)
Oh please (Score:2)
In Germany, they can't even manage next day delivery. 15 Minutes... don't make me laugh.
On the other hand, in a country where they are probably allowed to whip employees, they might have a better chance, who knows.
domino's 30 minutes or free ended with lawsuits (Score:2)
domino's 30 minutes or free ended with lawsuits
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IIRC that was due to traffic accidents. Put delivery drivers on bicycles and maybe it's not so much of a problem.
At any rate, India might not have the same culture of litigation. And given the traffic in many major Indian cities, try proving whether the pedestrian or bicycle had the right of way.
Re: (Score:2)
The traffic accidents were caused because the company wasn't willing to pay for free pizzas (no surprise), so the drivers were breaking traffic laws in order to meet the 30 minute deadline.
Remember that the 30 minutes includes the time needed to make and bake the pizza as well, so the delivery needed to happen in 10-15 minutes depending on how slammed the kitchen was. If it was during peak perio
So much for borrowing a cup of sugar (Score:2)
Now you can get it delivered faster apparently!
High speed (Score:3)
High speed tuk tuks
15 minutes? That's insane (Score:3)
Did anyone really ask for this? (Score:2)
Did anyone really ask for this?
15 minutes is unsustainable.
Amazon is just responding to competition (Score:2)
There are already a few successful 10 minute delivery startups like Zepto, Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart etc which are eating into Amazon's business because they're even delivering electronics like phones and microwave ovens in 10 mins. Amazon has no choice to respond to competition.
And yes, unfortunately, this will exploit low paid drivers for the delivery but they're already being exploited today by the likes of Zepto, Blinkit etc :-(.