Olga Magomedova, Researcher at the Gaidar Institute’s International Best Practices Analysis Department, commented for “Expert” on the phenomenon of the “economy of impatience” and its impact on market rules. In the era of 15-minute delivery and instant purchases, the speed of the consumer experience has become a new standard, but serious structural changes lie behind this.
According to the expert, the key trend is not so much attracting a new audience as intensifying consumption among the existing one. “Accelerated consumption is not so much a quantitative expansion of the audience as it is an increase in consumption among an audience with established consumer demands. This means that consumption of goods in similar categories is expanding. Consequently, the barrier to entry into sought-after market segments is lowering,” explained Olga Magomedova.
However, the positive impact of accessibility is offset by increasing technological dependence. Speed demands automation, and the tools required for it—such as dynamic pricing, AI-based forecasting, and route optimization are controlled by a limited number of players. “Since all automation processes are in the hands of a limited number of platforms, we can speak of business dependence on access to the platforms’ established infrastructure,” the expert noted.
This infrastructure is becoming a tool for controlling the market. Olga Magomedova emphasized that platforms can block sellers’ access to consumers, which is critical for entire market segments. “Consumers in low-margin categories (such as clothing) have already grown accustomed to consumption models with free returns, but meeting the demands of such a consumer model is only possible at the level of a large hub company that can shift the costs of repackaging and logistics changes onto sellers or defer them to future revenues,” the expert explained.
The result is a situation where the market becomes more accessible to new entrants, but the rules of the game are dictated by the platforms, thereby exacerbating inequality. “Paradoxically, lowering the barrier to entry into the consumer market, in terms of consumption dynamics, is accompanied by an increase in the costs of such access via the existing e-commerce platform infrastructure,” concluded Olga Magomedova.