SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN Q-COMMERCE INDUSTRY – A CASE STUDY OF ZEPTO

Abstract

A supply chain is a network between customers, the manufacturers, and the suppliers which involves exchange of activities between these parties such as purchase, logistics and transportation, production and distribution. There is a general notion that the supply chain starts with the procurement of raw materials, but if we see the supply chain starts with the “customers”. If there is no customer, there will be no demand and if there is no demand there will be no production of the good / service. Both the product as well as the service have a supply chain. The methodology may differ slightly, but the concept of supply chain remains the same for both types of industries. We can broadly look at the objective of an effective supply chain from three aspects: - For a Customer: Acts as a medium to fulfill customers need/requirements - For a Manufacturer: Acts a medium to procure raw material, make a quality product, and transport it to the supplier / customer. - For a Supplier: Acts as a medium to procure finished good from supplier and sell the product to the customer/end consumer. The supply chain for every industry is different and works differently. In this paper, we are focused on exploring the supply chain of the Q-Commerce industry. Page 6 of 46 The Q-commerce industry, also referred to as the quick commerce industry, is one of the most trending industries which has recently grown by leaps and bounces after the COVID-19 Pandemic in India. There is always high demand for daily need products from this industry and the consumers find this industry an essential and integral asset of their day-to-day livelihood. On the other hand, this industry faces a lot of challenges as well as they have to fulfill the quick and changing demands of their customers and thus, I believe that it can be labelled as a “convenience” based industry as well i.e. they have changed the way a customer used to behave earlier for buying small daily need products and how now at present the customer has become so much dependent on this industry for buying daily need products.