On 29 April 2024, food aggregator Getir announced its exit from the UK, Europe, and the US.

The company claims that it has plans to focus on expanding its services in Turkey, which continues to generate revenue.

Very few brands within Western markets remain to offer quick-commerce (q-commerce) services, and an e-commerce business strategy offers 15-30-minute delivery through a variety of locally positioned dark stores.

Q-commerce players such as Getir, Gorillas, Flink, and Dunzo reportedly gained a lot of consumer interest during the pandemic, causing them to expand into new markets.

However, in 2023, many of these businesses have witnessed bankruptcy or have been forced to downsize significantly in the last year.  

The decline of players in the q-commerce industry signals a change in consumers’ online purchase behaviour.

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The unique value proposition of rapid grocery delivery was a practical approach to offer a more convenient solution over established food aggregators such as Uber Eats.

Almost half (47%) of global consumers claim that they have less frequently or never shopped for groceries online in the past three months.

The declining trend of buying groceries online has significantly impacted younger generation groups such as Gen Z.

The young generation has become the segment most likely to claim that they purchase groceries less frequently (20%).

This suggests that concern for price inflation became a key driver in consumer decision-making.

Concern has discouraged consumers from ordering online due to higher product pricing and delivery charges.

Players in q-commerce faced numerous operational challenges in expanding their market share in Europe.

Many markets such as France, Spain, and Amsterdam introduced regulations to ban dark stores from significant cities.

Brands were forced to position their warehouses further away.

Consequently, the level of service from q-commerce took more work to uphold, and regular online delivery services became just as convenient.

One of the latest regulations was from France, which introduced a law stating that dark stores could no longer be classified as shops, only as warehouses.

Similar to other dark store regulations in Europe, warehouses cannot be in residential areas.

For Getir specifically, it already announced its departure from France before the regulation took effect.

Ultimately, the change in consumer behaviour led to its market failure.  

For the remaining q-commerce brands to survive, online item prices must be adjusted to match consumer expectations.

Delivery charges will also need to be negotiated by introducing loyalty schemes demonstrated by key e-commerce leaders such as Carrefour and Tesco and food aggregators, including Deliveroo and Uber Eats.

The sudden decline of q-commerce providers is a warning for other online grocery channels to maintain their affordability profile through loyalty schemes and regular price promotions.

Failure to comply could result in a new wave of bankruptcy in grocery e-commerce.