The consumer need for 10-minute deliveries wasn't demanded, but it was created.

Multiple startups went into an arms race to deliver products faster and faster to users who never really asked for them.

This expanded into category after category, starting from groceries to FMCG products, then to apparel, electronics, PS5s, iPhones, and later food. The 10-minute monster demands to be fed and is eating category after category, forcing consumers to change long-established patterns so they can get stuff delivered to their homes at a turnaround time they never imagined possible.

The next big frontier for all of these start-ups is now alcohol and liquor.

Finally, we have a category where most consumers want organised, regulated, and legitimate home deliveries. They're probably even willing to pay for it.

For quick commerce start-ups, too, home delivery of alcohol is a huge opportunity.

High margins, high stickiness, great repeat, massive market, negligible customer acquisition costs, hundreds of millions of consumers want it.

Startups with hundreds of millions in capital are desperate to offer it.

So, what is stopping 10-minute alcohol delivery?

In the latest episode of Two by Two, hosts Praveen Gopal Krishnan and Rohin Dharmakumar are joined by Prasanna Natarajan, founder of Sipping Spirits and Hipbar, India's first home-delivery liquor startup, which was later acquired by Cred, and Debashish Shyam, co-founder and director of Ardent Alcobev. He's had nearly 20 years of experience in alcohol marketing and sales at organisations as diverse as United Spirits and IBTC in Myanmar.

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This episode of Two by Two was produced by Hari Krishna. Rajiv CN, our resident sound engineer, mixed and mastered this episode.

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Listen to One Billion in 10 Minutes on The Ken app, Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

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Disclaimer:

Alcohol consumption is injurious to health. No participants in this episode promote alcohol consumption and strongly discourage underage, binge, and careless drinking. All panelists in this show express their own personal views, which do not necessarily reflect the views of the producers or promoters. Please drink responsibly.