Will It Become More Convenient Than Convenience Stores? Quick Commerce That Has Become a Daily Routine in China: Who Will Win in the Japanese Market?

The product ordered online arrives "the next day."

Just a few decades ago, this alone was an astonishingly convenient service.

However, in China and India, the shopping norm is advancing even further.

"Quick commerce," where products needed for daily life such as food, beverages, detergents, tissues, snacks, and dairy products are ordered via smartphone and delivered to your home in just a few minutes, is rapidly spreading.

According to a survey released by NielsenIQ (NIQ), 83% of surveyed consumers in China use quick commerce. In India, it reached 82%.

The global average is 48%. Europe is at 34%, and North America is only 3%, with only some markets in Asia significantly ahead.

China's quick commerce market is expected to exceed 1 trillion yuan by 2026. Furthermore, in China, it is said that 199 billion parcels were processed in 2025, forming a massive logistics infrastructure that supports instant delivery.

India is also experiencing remarkable growth. Quick commerce in the fourth quarter of 2025 increased by 68% compared to the same period the previous year. The number of "dark stores," small logistics hubs dedicated to delivery, is expected to exceed 5,000.

What's important here is that it's not simply a matter of "faster delivery."

What quick commerce is trying to change is our lifestyle habit of "when to shop."

From "bulk buying on weekends" to "ordering the moment it's needed"

In traditional supermarkets, shopping was a somewhat planned activity.

You would bulk buy groceries on weekends.

Stop by the supermarket on the way home from work.

Go to the drugstore during lunch break.

Even with online supermarkets, it was common to add a certain amount of products to the cart and reserve a delivery slot for the evening or the next day.

However, quick commerce changes this unit of shopping.

You start cooking dinner and realize you're out of eggs.

You look in the fridge and see you're out of milk.

You only have a few diapers left for your child.

You suddenly have a fever and need beverages and daily necessities.

In such cases, instead of going to the store, you order from your smartphone on the spot.

In just a few minutes, the product arrives at your doorstep.

In other words, the action shifts from "going shopping" to "calling in the necessary products."

If this becomes widespread, the very idea of "buying it tomorrow" might diminish.

As the time it takes for consumers to purchase shortens, companies will also need to have inventory and logistics capabilities that can always provide products instantly.

Why has it spread so much in China and India?

For quick commerce to be established, it's not enough for smartphones to be widespread.

The first condition is the population density of the city.

If many consumers live within a few kilometers radius of a delivery hub, one delivery person can handle multiple orders in a short time.

Conversely, if residences are widely dispersed, long distances must be traveled to deliver a single product, and profitability rapidly deteriorates.

The second is the dark store.

A dark store is not a supermarket where general customers shop.

It is a small logistics facility for quickly gathering products ordered via smartphone and handing them over to delivery personnel.

Instead of transporting products from a massive suburban logistics center, the inventory itself is moved into the urban areas where consumers live.

It's like a "small warehouse in the city."

The third is the integration of multiple services such as payment, e-commerce, food delivery, and ride-sharing on smartphones.

If ordering, payment, and checking delivery status can be completed with a few operations, the psychological hurdle to start shopping becomes extremely low.

Voices on social media say, "It's too convenient to go back."

In India, which has become a quick commerce advanced country, the impact on daily life is actively discussed on social media.

 

Particularly around Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart, the reaction is that "once you start using it, it's hard to go back to regular shopping."

You can order even during work or at night, without needing to move to the store, search for products, stand in line at the register, or carry the items home.

Therefore, for users, the biggest thing that quick commerce saves is not "money" but "time."

On the other hand, there are users who have noticed the downside of convenience.

On social media, there are stories about monthly expenses ballooning more than expected due to repeated small orders, and voices saying they would return to physical stores if service and delivery fees rise.

Because even products worth a few hundred yen can be easily ordered, the "time to reconsider a purchase" disappears, which is a feature of quick commerce.

If you were going to the store, you might give up on a product thinking "it's not worth going just for this," but with just a few taps, you end up ordering it.

Convenience reduces the burden of shopping but also removes the "friction" that existed in consumption.

The counterargument: "Is 10-minute delivery really necessary?"

On social media, there are even harsher debates.

In 2026, a topic that became popular on India's Reddit was the issue of dark stores like Blinkit and Zepto flooding into residential areas and beginning to change the city itself.

In one discussion, it was pointed out that while traditional small grocery stores targeted local residents, dark stores can target thousands of households within a few kilometers, changing the economic structure of retail itself.

On the other hand, there is the opinion that "it's a result of competition because it's more efficient and convenient than local shops."

From another perspective, there are also concerns about the working conditions of delivery personnel, the impact on traffic from a large number of bikes, and changes to residential areas due to logistics facilities.

There is also a fundamental question of whether such a massive logistics network is necessary to deliver potato chips or beverages in 10 minutes.

The debate surrounding quick commerce extends from mere preferences for the service to employment, real estate, urban planning, and the survival of local shops.

Even with rapid growth, it doesn't always mean profit

Another aspect not to overlook is the profitability of the business.

To achieve delivery times of 30 minutes or even 10 minutes, inventory needs to be placed throughout the city.

This requires warehouse rent, product inventory, picking staff, delivery personnel, system development, and promotional costs.

If the order value is only a few hundred yen, it's not easy to cover these costs with the profit from selling the products.

NIQ also pointed out in its announcement that just because the channel itself is growing rapidly, it doesn't mean participating companies automatically gain high profits.

This is a very important point.

Continuing discounts and free shipping to increase the number of users will increase orders.

However, when it comes to the stage of reducing discounts and having users bear service and delivery fees, more people might think, "In that case, I'll go to the store."

The ultimate winner in quick commerce might not be the fastest company, but the one that can maintain speed at a price consumers are satisfied with while still making a profit.

Quick commerce has already started in Japan

In Japan, the term "quick commerce" itself is not as common as in China or India.

However, when looking at services, the same change has already begun.

A representative example is 7-Eleven's "7NOW."

You can order about 3,000 products, from food to daily necessities, via smartphone, and they can be delivered in as little as 20 minutes. Nationwide expansion was completed in February 2025.

Interestingly, in Japan, instead of building a large number of new dark stores, existing convenience store locations are being utilized as logistics hubs.

Stores nationwide already have products, personnel, and refrigeration equipment.

They are used as "stores where customers come to shop" and simultaneously as "warehouses that send products to nearby residences."

This could become a powerful mechanism unique to Japan.

In extreme heat and aging society, "speed" becomes a living infrastructure

It's premature to think of quick commerce as merely a "service for busy young people."

According to 7-Eleven, the number of 7NOW uses on days when the maximum temperature exceeds 30 degrees increases by about 10% compared to usual.

On hot days, elderly people don't need to carry heavy drinks while walking.

Families living apart can deliver water and food to their parents' homes.

In March 2026, some 7-Eleven stores also began selling over-the-counter medicines using 7NOW.

In this way, quick commerce becomes more than just "convenient delivery."

It begins to hold meaning as a small living infrastructure that complements social issues in Japan, such as aging, dual-income households, childcare, health problems, and extreme heat.

Lawson also offers delivery at about 8,000 stores

Lawson is also expanding its delivery services.

In March 2026, "Lawson Delivery powered by menu," linked with the Lawson app and menu, was launched sequentially in about 1,800 stores across 12 prefectures.

The product lineup includes about 3,000 items.

Including Uber Eats, Lawson's delivery-capable stores reach about 8,000.

Noteworthy is the automatic linkage between in-store inventory and the delivery order screen, introduced since 2024.

In quick commerce, more important than displaying "delivered in 20 minutes" is ensuring "the ordered item is actually in the store."

A service where stockouts are discovered after order completion will not be trusted by users, no matter how fast the delivery is.

The competition in Japan's quick commerce is not just about the number of delivery personnel but also about the "accuracy of inventory data."

ONIGO reviews show what "Japanese consumers want"

ONIGO, a food delivery service, is also an interesting presence when considering Japan's quick commerce.

Currently, it sets the prices of about 2,000 main items almost the same as in-store prices and handles over 9,000 items, including fresh food, prepared meals, dairy products, and daily necessities.

Standard delivery is as fast as 70 minutes, with an additional express option as fast as 40 minutes.

Compared to China's "10-minute delivery," it may seem slow.

However, in the Japanese market, it may not necessarily need to be 10 minutes.

Looking at ONIGO user posts on X online, there are positive voices like "convenient and quick delivery" and "arrived in about 25 minutes," while also introducing dissatisfaction such as "prices feel high," "needed items were canceled due to stockouts," and "different items from the order were delivered."

These are secondary information collected from some posts and do not represent all users, but they provide hints for considering the spread of quick commerce in Japan.

For Japanese consumers, the important thing is not the fastest record, but

"The desired item is available"
"The price is acceptable"
"It arrives on time"
"It doesn't go out of stock after ordering"

It seems to be comprehensive reliability.

The biggest barrier is the perception that "it's more expensive than buying in-store"

A significant barrier to the spread of quick commerce in Japan is the price.

Even if it's convenient, if a 500-yen product in-store becomes 600 yen on a delivery app, with additional service and delivery fees, only a limited number of households can use it regularly.

Uber Eats started an initiative in March 2026 to have "the same price as the store" at about 18,000 locations nationwide, addressing this issue.

Although delivery fees and service charges may occur separately, they are trying to narrow the gap between the in-store price and the product itself.

For quick commerce to shift from "occasional luxury" to "everyday shopping," the price gap needs to be reduced more than the speed.

This will become an extremely important competitive axis in the Japanese market going forward.

Japan has strengths different from China

Should Japan build a large number of dark stores in urban areas like China?

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