10-Minute Deliveries in India: The Healthcare Hurdles No One Talks About

We’re living in an era where speed reigns supreme. 

Today, it’s not odd to expect your pack of sugar to arrive before your chai is brewed. In fact, India’s fixation with 10-minute deliveries has transformed consumer behavior entirely.

Services like BlinkIt, Zepto, and Instamart have pioneered this trend, delivering everything from groceries to gadgets faster than a pizza. The thought of waiting longer feels outdated to the Indian audience. Interestingly, this widespread user expectation of instant gratification is fairly addictive, as it often mirrors the dopamine rush we get from social media. 

This shift, driven by the country-wide love for convenience, has ignited significant interest in quick commerce for the healthcare sector. As the new frontier, 10-minute medicine delivery is capturing the attention of investors, founders, and consumers alike. Some companies have already started experimenting. BlinkIt, for instance, recently introduced a 10-minute ambulance service in Delhi NCR, hence pushing the boundaries of rapid response in healthcare.

But healthcare can’t possibly be equated to groceries. 

To make quick commerce in healthcare a reality, companies need to overcome the unique hurdles that aren’t present in other sectors. This means rethinking how they manage inventories, handle prescriptions, and ensure patient safety — all while maintaining the lightning-fast speeds that have become so popular. 

Before we chase speed, companies need to tackle these essentials: 

Intent versus discovery-based behavioral differences

You see, any wave of commerce can’t succeed without understanding how people shop. And when it comes to medicines, user behavior takes a sharp turn compared to groceries.

Typing out complex drug names isn’t practical. Most digital users prefer uploading a prescription (as can be done on the Tata 1mg app) or snapping a photo of their medicine box and sending it to their local pharmacy. They’re extremely brand loyal as they prefer sticking to specific products their doctor recommends, especially since doctors may prescribe different brands of the same salt, and never ‘surf’ a laundry list of medicines that could potentially be helpful.

For traditional users, buying medicines is often coupled with doctor visits. Patients, particularly those with chronic conditions, purchase their required medicines either during or right after seeing their doctor, often at medical shops near hospitals. This makes it more of a scheduled task than a spontaneous one.

Buying medicines can neither be for leisure, nor a daily affair. It is deliberate, precise, and driven by necessity, and not impulse. 

On the other hand, grocery shoppers are happy with a cart-like interface, browsing staples, and snacks — because the stakes are fairly low, and the choices are as straightforward as possible. 

This stark difference in behavior is what makes quick commerce for healthcare an uphill battle. Unlike groceries, healthcare can’t rely on the appeal of variety or flashy discounts, as they don’t significantly influence necessity. Nor can it mimic the familiar grocery app experience, as the intentions and behaviors are fundamentally different.

Predictability ends when prescription enters

Then there’s the cornerstone for quick commerce success: Supply Chain. 

In quick commerce, supply chain success relies on knowing what to stock and when to replenish. 

Quick commerce giants like BlinkIt, Instamart, Zepto, BigBasket, and similar platforms are operating on a dark store model, where they stock up the inventory that gets displayed on the user interface. This approach works exceptionally well for groceries, as the demand is way more predictable. An average consumer would need milk, bread, and eggs on a daily. 

But medicine as a category is inherently unpredictable. Unlike groceries, medication purchases are deeply influenced by personalized prescriptions tailored to an individual's unique medical history, ongoing conditions, and specific health needs. This variability makes stock forecasting extremely difficult. After all, no one can predict when illness will strike or when a change in medication is required. 

On top of that, all medicines come with expiration dates, which makes overstocking just as risky as understocking. While this is the case for groceries, electronics, and beauty products as well; delivering expired medicines poses a critical health risk. 

In the mix of these challenges, you can sprinkle regulatory issues, varying shelf life, and limited inventory — all adding layers of complexity to make quick commerce in healthcare a success.

‘Quick’ commerce for medicines needs more than speed

Quick commerce, at its core, thrives on two key factors: convenience and speed. As we look at healthcare through this lens, we can draw parallels with how technology is transforming this sector. 

For instance, diagnostic services, which once required long waits at centers, now offer at-home collection and near-instant report delivery. Similarly, areas like pediatric care, which used to be time-consuming with visits to doctors, are being transformed through AI and teleconsultations which provide instant support to parents. Orange Health and Babynama, our portfolio companies, are two of the many organizations in this space leading the way, respectively.

The difference between the current status quo and how startups can meaningfully disrupt healthcare lies in improving access, without compromising the critical element of trust. For healthcare to truly transform, it must strike a delicate balance between speed, personalization, and the depth of expertise required to ensure the best outcomes.

As we look ahead, we’re excited to see how healthcare can be personalized in once unthinkable ways — through wearables, on-demand care, AI-driven diagnostics, and personalized supplements. 

Just as quick commerce has reshaped the way we shop, we believe that ‘personalization’ has the potential to redefine healthcare, making it faster, more tailored, and more accessible to those who need it most.

When it comes to healthcare, it can’t just be about the rush. 

It needs to also be about trust, reliability, and getting the right medicine into the hands of those who need it, all in time.