Quick commerce
Does ten minute delivery make people buy more on impulse?
It can, but it need not. People give extra weight to what they can have now, and at one online grocer shorter waits between ordering and delivery went with more spending on wants. Yet shoppers chose fewer indulgent foods online than in stores, and writing a list first cut the number of items bought. Planning moves into the app rather than disappearing.
What the report found
- Ten minutes is now a normal promise. Several large apps offer delivery in fifteen minutes or less across the UAE. On talabat, grocery and retail orders in the last quarter of 2025 were up 45 per cent on a year earlier and made up almost a third of the total.
- The present weighs more than the future. Decades of research find that people give extra weight to what they can have now. In one study, people chose far more unhealthy snacks to eat immediately than they had chosen a week ahead.
- A delay protects the plan. At one online grocer, the longer the wait between ordering and delivery, the less customers spent and the more of their basket went on vegetables and other things they felt they should buy.
- Speed sells, and lateness costs. Faster delivery raised one retailer's sales by about 1.5 per cent for each business day saved, and in quick commerce data, late deliveries lengthened the time before customers ordered again.
- Screens can also help people plan. Shoppers chose fewer indulgent foods online than in a store, and people who wrote a shopping list first bought fewer items online. Whether ten minute delivery ends planning or simply changes it is still open.
What is inside
- What is new
- What older research tells us
- What early studies suggest
- What nobody knows yet
- Questions worth watching
Plus an evidence maturity map, a scenario grid and a list of signals to watch.
Who it is for
For retailers, delivery and app teams, grocery brands, policy teams and anyone whose customers now shop in minutes.
How we work
Frontier Reports separate what is established from what is emerging and what remains untested. Every claim is graded, and where researchers disagree, as they do on whether ten minute delivery weakens or helps planning, both sides are set out before we say where we stand.
Cite this report
The Why We Project (2026) Quick commerce: Ten minute delivery and the end of planning. Frontier Report No. 14. Dubai: Why We Tech Ltd. Available at: thewhyweproject.com