Expert Speak: A sassy social media wave helmed by Quick Commerce Apps

Social Samosa digs deeper to understand how quick commerce apps have begun to integrate customer service channels with social media to provide a seamless experience, while also being the sassiest brands out there online.

Of late, Rajshekar Patil, ECD, VMLY&R, has been getting requests from clients from traditional industries, asking the agency to change the tone of their social media feed and make it like Dunzo or like Swiggy. Quick commerce apps, over the last few months, have embodied the spirit of sassy GenZ and millennials on social media - who are not afraid to crack a lame joke or reply in rhymes and puns.

While Quick Commerce has been around for the last few years, the post-pandemic digital acceleration has pushed the industry into a newer league. Data by Red Seer suggests that Quick commerce is estimated at USD $~0.3 Bn in CY2021 and is expected to grow 10-15x in the next 5 years, that is $5 billion by 2025.

Experts tell us that these Quick Commerce apps require a network effect to maintain and grow active users, leading them to social media. The cool social media presence created by them is now even disrupting how even traditional brands used to communicate and forcing them to change.

And this growth of delivery apps, experts say, is an outcome of knowing their consumers and understanding who their “extreme users” are.

The Rise of Q-Commerce

The supply chain disruptions induced by the Covid-19 pandemic led to the emergence of a new sub-vertical in the online grocery segment- quick commerce, the promise of delivery within 10-30 minutes of ordering.

Now stand a plethora of brands out there vouching on a similar promise. Dunzo Daily promises delivery in 20 minutes, Swiggy Instamart delivers in 15-30 minutes, blinkit (earlier Grofers) is delivering groceries within 10 minutes and the newest entrant Zepto delivers within 5-15 minutes of placing the order.

Many apps that started off with a different service, also, amid the pandemic paved their way into this completely different segment of super-fast delivery of groceries. Not only these have reinvented themselves significantly to make an outreach to the consumers and deliver necessities, but there are also newer buying models, enhanced accessibility, and a multitude of choices. The ride-hailing and mobility brand Ola re-entered the quick grocery delivery segment with Ola Store. Ecommerce giant Flipkart launched Flipkart Quick which leverages local partnerships and the power of e-commerce to make quick deliveries.

Also read: Grofers CEO responds to social media flak on 10-minute delivery service

Brands are going the extra mile today to deliver fast.

Brands like Zomato also diversified into grocery delivery but exited the category in a few months.

And the list goes on. Although what mainly differentiates these brands is their social media marketing strategy.

Quick Commerce Social Media - All The Sass & Binge

Creating humane brands on social media has been one of the most effective ways to garner engagement. Be it Zomato and Netflix in India or global brands like Burger King and even PornHub - brands over the years have managed to manifest their brand personality - sassy, witty, cool, being able to laugh on themselves

The Quick Commerce apps are super active on social media for a lot of things - to distribute content, share news, and provide customer service. But mainly for topical content, jokes, burns, and unmitigated sass.

Blinkit’s approach to social media is in sync with its brand identity and mission of making 10-minute delivery accessible to more and more people in India, which reflects in its content too.

Its posts are topical, relatable, witty, informative, and fun content across different social media platforms. The brand spokesperson shares that it also uses these mediums to solve any issues they face with its product or service.

“We see these platforms as a medium to have an open channel of communication with anyone and everyone. A lot of these are very intangible benefits and while that cannot be measured, as a proxy we do look at engagement metrics to gauge a sense of how many people relate to, or want to consume the content that we are putting out there,” they add.

Also read: Advertising has a circle of life moment as delivery apps redefine celebrity endorsements

For bigbasket, social media acts both as a performance and engagement-driven channel.

Sharing its strategy in detail, Shriram Sundararajan, Manager - Digital Marketing, bigbasket, says that 50% of its budget on digital marketing is spent on social media, driving acquisition retention and discovery/traffic led campaigns.

It uses predominantly Facebook and Instagram to drive performance marketing and also collaborates with influencers on a frequent basis to communicate about beauty offerings. The brand is planning to introduce new formats such as short-form videos and live-action films this year.

These platforms are essentially becoming a place where people get entertained and informed along with being connected with their friends and family. These are the main offerings that help any brand to scale on these platforms.

Sundararajan shares that from collaboration with content creators to offering the opportunity to create a wide range of formats, these platforms enable a wide variety of targeting options such as demography-based targeting, behavioral targeting, and interest-based targeting which helps to cater content to the desired audience.

Being a metrics-driven organization, it looks at the number of new users acquired through the channel and the cost of acquiring them on a daily basis. bigbasket also looks at reach (organic/ paid), engagement rate, completed video views, impressions.

In a constant need to grow their share of customers and to retain them over time, Rashid Ahmed, Head of Digital, Infectious Advertising, shares that these apps need to be seen (awareness building) and be appreciated (affinity/consideration building). Social media platforms provide just the right medium for high volume, high-frequency communication, with the ability to use paid media to focus on the kind of audiences that may actually engage with the brand.

A highly effective social media strategy would be to focus on communication and gaining additional consumers, he adds.

Wit, Humour & Aesthetics

Direct-to-consumer brands are not just cleaving away market share, they also have a contemporary and authentic look and feel that’s refreshingly different from a mass established brand.

Patil shares that these apps are disrupting how even traditional clients communicate and are forcing them to change.

Sharing his observations, he says:

• it’s not about simply appropriating social media language; it’s about finding your own voice.
• if you want a distinct look, be ready to spend on good image libraries, hire talented illustrators, 3D artists, writers and then give them the time to be consistently creative. The future of brands on social media is one that is visually sophisticated, carefully crafted, and lovingly curated.
• social media should not be treated as free banner space. One needs to maintain a visual aesthetic that feels at home on Insta, with minimal text and pleasing visuals.

On the interaction front, Ahmed believes that brands have begun to integrate customer service channels with social media as a central component, to provide a seamless and natural experience for consumers.

Today, technology allows users to be serviced via, in-app, messenger, or social chat, and even via SMS, email, or social inbox conversations, all in the same flow. For a consumer, it would simply feel like they’re communicating with an acquaintance over a variety of platforms.

Also read: Swiggy pays a musical tribute to delivery partners

Customer Feedback & Grievances

While the quick delivery of groceries has now become more of a trend, braving customer feedback is a necessity. Customers take it to social media to air out their complaints with great effect, and most of these apps are quick to address the same.

The blinkit spokesperson shares that social media platforms play a massive role in connecting its customers with the brand.

“Apart from helping us tell our story on an everyday basis, these platforms also bridge the gap between grievances and redressals for our customers. Thanks to the thriving social media platforms, we are able to instantly connect with all our customers, to receive encouraging feedback as well as suggestions on improvements,” he adds.

These platforms have invested substantial time and energy into building communities and engagement on social. Their audiences are the always-on kind of young millennials who consume their social feeds all hours of the day. So, while these brands build reach and impact through comms, they use social for building topical salience for the brand.

A tweet may cost nothing to produce but it takes a very engaged audience on your platform for them to pick the tweet up and make it go viral.

However, Ashish Khazanchi, Managing Partner, Enormous Brands advises one needs to have a clear definition of the brand and its stance on things for it to have a consistent voice across issues and topicalities. The sharper brands will have a sharper and more memorable take on things.