THE WHEEL OF RETAILING IS STILL SPINNING: PROMISES, COMPROMISES, AND PITFALLS OF QUICK-COMMERCE

In the fast-paced retailing environment, consumers’ needs still drive purchase decisions. Yet, the increasing diffusion of new technologies and new business models suggests that shopping is on the verge of a quantum jump into a realm where innovations, driven by newer digital-native players, are changing the game of retailing and setting its future developments. Ultrafast deliverers fully belong to this category: with the defiant promise of delivering goods in less than 30 minutes, they are shifting the paradigms of e-commerce into the newborn construct of Quick Commerce (Q-Commerce). Since everything comes at a price, this paper provides a definition of Q-Commerce and discuss the challenges faced by ultrafast deliverers in keeping the wheel of retailing move forward but not without a few compromises to the retailing-mix.