Consumer (2 of 6)

E-commerce and quick commerce

About 8 minutes to read in full, or 1 minute for the short version belowFacts checked 30 September 2026

In one minute

Online shops and marketplaces sell goods through websites and apps and deliver them to the door, some within 10 to 30 minutes.

The big idea: In e-commerce the unit is the order. An order makes money only if what the company keeps from it (its margin or its fees) covers picking, packing, delivery, payment, discounts and returns, and then enough orders flow through each warehouse or dark store to pay its fixed costs. Always separate GMV, the value of goods sold, from revenue, what the company itself earns.

One unit, in numbers: One quick commerce order in India with a basket of INR 600: INR 141 comes in, and INR 60 (43%) is left after its own costs.What is left is the unit's contribution, before the costs of the whole company. See the worked example
Typical margin: Thin or negative: about 0 to 1 percent of GMV for fast-growing playersRoughly how much of every 100 of sales (or income) is left as profit after the running costs. More on margin
Capital intensity: MediumA fair amount of money is tied up, in things like stores, stock or equipment. More on capital intensity
The number to watch: Gross merchandise value (GMV)The total value of goods sold through the platform before returns and cancellations; it is not revenue.

Ask this first in a case

Is the client first party, a marketplace, or both, and is the number I am given GMV or revenue?

Words used above (5)

GMV (gross merchandise value):: The total value of goods sold on a platform; not the same as revenue.
First party (1P):: The company buys, owns and sells the stock itself.
Third party (3P) or marketplace:: Independent sellers own the stock; the platform earns fees.
Quick commerce:: Delivery of groceries and daily items in about 10 to 30 minutes.
Dark store:: A small warehouse, closed to the public, placed in a neighbourhood to serve fast delivery.

The industry's other words are explained in Words to know (13).

On this page (17 sections)

How money is made

First party (1P): buy stock from suppliers, own it, and sell it at a markup, keeping the product margin.
Marketplace (3P): let independent sellers list their goods and take a commission, usually a percentage of each sale.
Fulfilment and logistics fees: sellers pay the platform to store, pack and ship their goods.
Advertising: sellers and brands pay to appear higher in search results; it is the highest-margin income.
Subscriptions and customer fees: memberships for free delivery, plus delivery, small-order and handling fees.
Payment and credit services added to the order.

Worked example: one unit

Unit economics means the money in and out for one unit of the business. Start from the revenue, take away the unit's own costs, and what is left is its contribution. More on unit economics

The unit: One quick commerce order in India with a basket of INR 600, in INR. Illustrative, rounded figures.
Line	Amount	ShareShare of revenue
What the company keeps per order: 18 percent margin on goods (108) + advertising income worth 3 percent of order value (18) + delivery and handling fee (15)	INR 141	100%
Minus Rider to deliver the order	INR 45	32%
Minus Packaging	INR 7	5%
Minus Payment fees (1.5 percent of INR 600)	INR 9	6.4%
Minus Discounts and coupons	INR 20	14%
What is left (contribution)	INR 60	43%

Check: INR 141 minus INR 81 of costs leaves INR 60.

So what: Each order leaves about INR 60 to pay the dark store's rent, staff and power, so a store with INR 18 lakh (1.8 million) of fixed costs a month needs about 1,000 orders a day to break even. The rider is the biggest cost, so a bigger basket per trip and more orders per store move profit most.

Key measures(10)

Key measures (also called KPIs, key performance indicators) are the numbers people in this industry track. Ask for the first one or two early in a case.

Gross merchandise value (GMV)
The total value of goods sold through the platform before returns and cancellations; it is not revenue. Glossary: Gross merchandise value (GMV)
Typical: Shopee: about USD 127.4 billion in 2025[1]
Take rate
Revenue divided by GMV: the share of each sale the platform keeps through commissions, fees and advertising. Glossary: Take rate
Average order value (AOV)
The average amount spent per order. Glossary: Average order value (AOV)
Typical: Blinkit about INR 525 per order in the quarter to March 2026 (INR 14,386 crore of net order value over 273.9 million orders)[2]
Contribution per order
What one order leaves after its own costs (delivery, packaging, payment, discounts, returns), before the site's fixed costs.
Orders per site per day
How busy each warehouse or dark store is, compared with the orders it needs to break even.
Return rate
The share of orders sent back; each return costs handling and loses the margin on the sale. Glossary: Return rate
Conversion rate
The share of visits to the site or app that end in an order.
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) and lifetime value (LTV)
What it costs to win a customer, against the profit that customer brings over all their future orders. Glossary: Customer acquisition cost (CAC) and lifetime value (LTV)
Repeat rate
Orders per active customer per year; repeat orders are far cheaper than new customers.
Third-party share of units
The share of units sold by independent sellers rather than by the platform itself.
Typical: Around 60 percent at Amazon in recent years[4]

First questions to ask

When a case lands in this industry, these questions get you to the numbers that matter.

Is the client first party, a marketplace, or both, and is the number I am given GMV or revenue?
What does one order contribute, line by line, after delivery, payment, discounts and returns?
How many orders does each warehouse or dark store handle a day, and how many does it need to break even?
How many sites or cities are mature, and how many are still ramping up?
What does it cost to win a customer, and how often do they order again?

Value chain: where the margin sits

The value chain is the steps a product or service passes through, from the first supplier to the customer. Each step below shows how much of the value it keeps. More on value chains

Step 1: Brands and sellers make or source the goods
Margin varies
Brand owners, importers and millions of small independent sellers
Step 2: The platform: listings, search, advertising and checkout
Fat margin
Amazon, Shopee, Flipkart, noon, Mercado Libre, Zalando
For scaled leaders: commissions and advertising grow with volume at little extra cost. Amazon earned about USD 68.6 billion from advertising in 2025.
Step 3: Payment
Medium margin
Card networks, wallets, payment firms, cash on delivery handled by couriers
Costs the seller about 1 to 3 percent of each order.
Step 4: Fulfilment: store, pick and pack the order
Thin margin
Fulfilment centres, dark stores (small warehouses closed to the public), logistics firms
Falls with scale and automation.
Step 5: Last-mile delivery to the door
Thin margin
In-house fleets, gig riders on motorbikes, parcel couriers
Often the most expensive single step, because each stop serves one customer.
Step 6: Returns and customer service
Thin margin
The retailer or platform, reverse logistics firms
A pure cost; very high in online fashion, low in grocery.

Profit pool: who keeps the money

Where in the value chain the profit ends up, which is often not where most of the sales are. More on profit pools

The profit sits in the layers that never touch the box: advertising, marketplace commissions and seller services, which grow with volume at little extra cost. The physical steps (fulfilment, last mile and returns) are thin and only pay off with dense neighbourhoods and frequent repeat orders. That is why leaders push advertising and fees while fighting to cut the cost of every delivery.

Cost structure(7)

The main costs, each as a share of revenue (the money from sales).

Cost of goods sold (first-party sellers): 65 to 80 percent
Fulfilment: warehouse, picking, packing: 5 to 12 percent
Last-mile delivery: 4 to 10 percent
Marketing: 3 to 10 percent
Returns: 0 to 10 percent (very high in fashion, low in grocery)
Technology and overheads: 3 to 8 percent
Payments: 1 to 3 percent

Benchmarks(6)

Typical figures for the industry, to check a client's numbers against.

Third-party share of Amazon units sold: Around 60 percent in recent years[4]
Amazon advertising revenue, 2025: About USD 68.6 billion, up about 22 percent[5]
Amazon third-party seller services revenue, 2025: About USD 172 billion[5]Commissions and fulfilment fees paid by independent sellers.
Shopee, 2025: GMV about USD 127.4 billion from 13.9 billion orders (about USD 9 per order); adjusted EBITDA about USD 881 million, under 1 percent of GMV[1]
Blinkit adjusted EBITDA, quarter to March 2026: About INR 37 crore, about 0.26 percent of net order value: its second positive quarter in a row, after about INR 4 crore in the quarter to December 2025[3]
Mercado Libre net revenue, 2025: About USD 28.9 billion, up 39 percent[6]

Typical cases(7)

Case prompts you might hear in this industry.

A quick commerce app in Riyadh wants to open 50 more dark stores. Should it?
An online fashion retailer in Germany is losing money even though sales are growing. Why?
Our marketplace client wants to raise its seller commission by 2 points. What will happen?
A supermarket chain in India asks whether it should launch its own 15-minute delivery. What do you advise?
A retailer wants online sales to grow from 5 to 20 percent of its total in three years. How?
How many orders a day does a dark store in Mumbai need to break even?
A seller that ships single parcels from Asia to the US and the EU now faces duties. What should it do?

Common traps(4)

Mistakes candidates make in this industry, and what to do instead.

Treating GMV as revenue. Instead, ask for the take rate or gross margin and work out what the company really keeps.
Judging a young network on the average of all its sites. Instead, split mature sites from new ones, which lose money while volumes build.
Forgetting that discounts, returns and failed deliveries are costs of each order. Instead, build contribution per order with every one of them.
Copying a model that works in Bengaluru or Dubai to Berlin or Dallas. Instead, check population density and rider wages first, because they set the cost of each trip.

What changed, 2024 to 2026(6)

Recent changes a case could turn on.

India's quick commerce moved from pure growth toward profit: Blinkit reported net order value up about 95 percent in the quarter to March 2026 and a positive adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter in a row, at only about 0.26 percent of order value. Margins stay razor thin.[3]
The Gulf became a second quick commerce hub: Amazon launched 15-minute delivery (Amazon Now) in the UAE in October 2025, against noon, talabat and Careem. From 28 February 2026 a regional conflict disrupted travel, so check current demand data.[7]
Western Europe and the US shrank the ultra-fast model: Getir announced in April 2024 it would leave the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and the US. Lower density and higher wages make each order costlier.[8]
The US suspended duty-free entry for low-value parcels on 29 August 2025, raising landed costs for sellers that ship single parcels from abroad.[9]
The EU agreed in November 2025 to remove its EUR 150 customs duty exemption for small parcels in 2026.[10]
Advertising became the profit engine of marketplaces: Amazon's advertising revenue rose about 22 percent to about USD 68.6 billion in 2025.[5]

Players by region(7)

Well-known companies in each region. You do not need to learn them by heart; they help you picture the market.

Global: Amazon (sells its own stock and runs a marketplace)
Alibaba (China; owns Lazada in Southeast Asia)
Shein and Temu (low-price sellers that ship from China to the world)
United States: Amazon
Walmart (stores plus online; also owns Flipkart in India)
Instacart (grocery delivery from stores)
DoorDash (restaurant and grocery delivery)
Gopuff (quick commerce)
Europe: Amazon
Zalando (Germany, online fashion)
Allegro (Poland, marketplace)
Flink (Germany, quick commerce)
Getir (left the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and the US in 2024 to focus on Türkiye)
Middle East: noon (UAE and Saudi Arabia)
Amazon.ae and Amazon.sa
talabat (delivery app that runs talabat mart dark stores)
Careem Quik
Amazon Now (15-minute delivery in the UAE since October 2025)
India: Flipkart (owned by Walmart)
Amazon India
Blinkit (owned by Eternal, formerly Zomato; 2,243 dark stores at March 2026)
Swiggy Instamart
Zepto
Southeast Asia: Shopee (part of Sea Limited, Singapore)
Lazada (owned by Alibaba)
TikTok Shop (combined with Tokopedia in Indonesia)
Grab (GrabMart delivery)
Latin America: Mercado Libre (net revenue about USD 28.9 billion in 2025)
Amazon

Words to know(13)

Linked words have a fuller entry in the glossary.

GMV (gross merchandise value) (glossary entry): The total value of goods sold on a platform; not the same as revenue.
Take rate (glossary entry): The share of GMV a platform keeps as revenue.
First party (1P) (glossary entry): The company buys, owns and sells the stock itself.
Third party (3P) or marketplace (glossary entry): Independent sellers own the stock; the platform earns fees.
AOV (average order value) (glossary entry): The average amount spent per order.
Quick commerce (glossary entry): Delivery of groceries and daily items in about 10 to 30 minutes.
Dark store (glossary entry): A small warehouse, closed to the public, placed in a neighbourhood to serve fast delivery.
Last mile (glossary entry): The final trip from a warehouse or store to the customer's door.
Return rate (glossary entry): The share of orders sent back by customers.
CAC (customer acquisition cost) (glossary entry): What a company spends on marketing and discounts to win one new customer.
LTV (lifetime value) (glossary entry): The profit a customer brings over all their future orders.
Batching: Giving a rider several orders on one trip to cut the cost per order.
Adjusted EBITDA: Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, leaving out one-off items and some non-cash costs: a rough measure of operating cash profit.

Business model patterns

The ways of making money this industry follows. Spot the pattern in a new industry and you already know the first questions to ask.

Sources(11)

Facts checked on 30 September 2026. Worked examples are illustrative, shaped by these sources rather than one company's figures.

Go deeper and practise

Go deeper

The full lessons behind this brief, with sources and worked cases.

Practise it

Same pattern elsewhere

Industries that make money in a similar way. What you learned here carries over.