Quick commerce

Quick commerce: the impulse moment is short and the shelf is shorter. Sponsored products sell the shelf; Trade Media sells the price, set against the shelf it sits on.

A few slots per screen: A phone search shows four to six tiles before the scroll. Every slot decides a basket.

Late-night, impulse ordering: Short, time-pressured visits. Shoppers decide in seconds, so an offer has to be in the first view.

Small baskets: Growing the order by one item matters more than another impression.

Stock that moves by the hour: Each dark store has its own stock. Never promote what that store can't deliver.

One price for everyone: Funded prices are the same for every shopper who sees that product in that context. No individual pricing.

What the sponsored slot buys: Placement and visibility; Defence of branded and generic search; Impressions, clicks and ROAS. What it can't buy a category leader: The sale lost when a rival product is cheaper; Category volume, not just share of a fixed visit; Access to the larger trade and promotion budget.

Blanket promotion vs priced to sell (illustrative four weeks): a flat discount runs every week; Trade Media is funded only when out-priced. In the example the blanket discount was wasted in 3 of 4 weeks and deeper than needed in the other.

The mission decides what the offer can win. Category tells you what someone bought. The mission tells you why — and each mission brings its own time pressure, basket and openness to an offer, even for the same person.

Top Up: 321M baskets, average basket £11.85, 5.11 items; 27.5% of Top Up baskets 3–6pm; 45% of Sunday baskets; +£3.07 member premium. Offer that fits: Funded price on the routine staple.

Food To Go: 190M baskets, average basket £5.03, 3.01 items; 28.2% of Food To Go baskets 12–3pm; +£1.99 member premium. Offer that fits: Meal-deal style multi-buy.

Meal For Tonight: 60M baskets, average basket £13.22 (Meal Occasions), 6.11 (Meal Occasions) items; 28.2% of Meal Occasions baskets 3–6pm; +£2.21 member premium (Meal Occasions). Offer that fits: Bundle that completes the meal.

Treat: 66M baskets, average basket £8.39, 2.11 items; 32.0% of Treat baskets 3–6pm; 30.9% 6–9pm; +£1.34 member premium. Offer that fits: Single impulse saving at checkout.

Entertaining: 9M baskets, average basket £21.88, 8.41 items; Rises sharply on Friday and Saturday; +£0.35 member premium. Offer that fits: Multi-buy that grows the basket.

Co-op's published convenience data, UK stores, 2025. Not PA results and not quick-commerce data.

PA's view: because the offer is often what decides a short mission, a funded price matched to the mission is how a brand wins the sale, acquires a new customer and builds lifetime value. The research describes missions; it does not measure how easily shoppers switch.

Quick commerce runs on the same short, time-pressured missions — in the app and late at night.

Source: Co-op Media Network, "State of the Mission", Co-op Compass, 2026 — https://www.coop.co.uk/coop-media-network/compass/state-of-the-mission-report (checked 12 November 2026).

Source: Stanley Oyovota, "Why the strongest media signal isn't what people bought, it's why they went shopping", MAD//Fest London 2026 (YouTube, 22 July 2026) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT5ibuqAMC0 (checked 12 November 2026).

Source: "State of the Mission: why understanding shopper intent matters", LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/state-mission-why-understanding-shopper-intent-matters-c7jme/ (checked not opened).

Every delivery costs the same. Make every basket worth more. The rider, the packing and the trip cost roughly the same whether the basket holds one item or six. Cross-sell and automated bundles add relevant items before checkout, so each delivery carries more. Moments: product page "Goes well with" bundle, cart cross-sell, checkout last-moment add. Bundles use only items in stock at the shopper's dark store; Retailer rules can lock, block or boost any pairing; Sponsored and funded add-ons clear the same relevance bar; Nothing is added unless the shopper ticks it.

Six brands, one late-night shelf: The price closes the switch. Six crisp brands on one search screen. The sponsored brand gets seen; a funded price set against the cheapest rival wins the add-to-basket.

Single can → four-pack: Turn a single can into a four-pack order. Two energy drinks side by side at the same price. The supplier's funding goes to a four-pack price that grows the order, instead of a flat cut on one can.

Own brand leads: Own brand leads the shelf. A national brand prices to compete. The retailer's own brand sits first. A national brand funds a price inside the retailer's rules to earn its place in the basket.

Ad cap per screen: A maximum number of sponsored tiles on each surface, set by the retailer.

Relevance bar: A sponsored tile must clear a relevance score for the search before it can show.

Stock-aware by dark store: Items out of stock at the shopper's store are never promoted.

Delivery promises from the retailer: Phrases like "in 20 minutes" appear only when the retailer's own delivery service, cut-off and lead time support them.

Guardrails: Same price for every shopper who sees the product in that context; Human approval above limits the retailer sets; Clear supplier-funded labels; The retailer keeps price image, margin and the system of record; PA notifies AdOps and advertisers on pacing; floors, caps and any makegood stay the retailer's decisions.

12-week pilot: Weeks 1–3 Integrate and set guardrails; Weeks 4–10 Live with suppliers; Weeks 11–12 Read-out and scale plan.

All products, brands and prices are illustrative.