The death of hyperlocal delivery start-ups: what went wrong?

© Jeremy Richards

India was supposed to be the next e-commerce behemoth. It already has a culture of B2C deliveries; a potentially huge logistics workforce crying out to be trained and massive interest in the concept of hyperlocal logistics from investors, especially in the delivery of food and groceries to households. But it just hasn’t happened, and in the past couple of years alone the survival rate for hyperlocal start-ups has become increasingly low. “The money charged by start-ups barely made for the cost of the delivery. Many of them also rang the death knell by topping it up by offering discounts and free deliveries to partner merchants with an aim to acquire them, early on. The start-ups are also to be blamed for lack of technological vision that could have added value to the customers and enhance overall experience.”