Quick commerce glossary
The shelf, ad and inventory terms brands use to run quick commerce on Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart and Flipkart Minutes, defined the way we use them on this site. Each entry says what the term measures and why it matters on quick commerce.
CPM
CPM, or cost per mille, is what you pay for every 1,000 ad impressions. CPM = ad spend ÷ impressions × 1,000. It measures the price of being seen, not of clicks or orders. Ads billed per click still have an effective CPM, which lets you compare the cost of visibility across keywords, cities and platforms.
Why it matters on quick commerce: CPM is the price of visibility. On crowded quick commerce keywords, CPMs can climb until brands pay more just to stay visible, not to grow; reading CPM alongside CTR and ROAS shows whether the visibility is earning its cost.
D+3 attribution
D+3 attribution means results read three days after the day they happened, once orders attributed late have settled. Orders keep being credited to a day’s ads (D) after it ends, so a read on D+1 undercounts attributed sales and ROAS. Bids and budgets are judged on the D+3 numbers instead.
Why it matters on quick commerce: On quick commerce, where bids and budgets change daily, calls made on D+1 data can cut campaigns that were working but had not yet been credited. Reading at D+3 avoids pulling winners too early.
Dayparting
Dayparting is setting ad bids and budgets by daypart, an hour or block of hours, instead of running them flat all day. You read orders, spend and ROAS for each daypart, then bid up the strongest, keep the steady ones and pause the dead ones, usually within the same daily budget cap.
Why it matters on quick commerce: Quick commerce demand swings through the day, by category and location. A campaign with a healthy daily ROAS can still burn budget in dead hours while underfunding the hours that convert, and only hourly data shows it.
DOH (days on hand)
DOH, or days on hand, is how many days your stock will last at the current rate of sale. DOH = stock on hand ÷ DRR. It is tracked per SKU and location, including feeder warehouses. Low DOH on a fast-moving SKU means a stockout is near; high DOH on a slow one means capital is stuck.
Why it matters on quick commerce: DOH turns a stock count into a deadline. On quick commerce, a warehouse with only a few days of cover can leave dark stores empty mid-campaign, while surplus stock locks up capital that faster-moving SKUs need.
DRR (daily run rate)
DRR, or daily run rate, is the average number of units a SKU sells per day over a recent period. DRR = units sold in the period ÷ days in the period. It is read by SKU, city, warehouse or dark store, and paired with stock on hand to show how long inventory will last.
Why it matters on quick commerce: On quick commerce, stock moves fast and every dark store runs on its own inventory. DRR tells you when a warehouse will run dry, which POs to raise first, and whether ads are pushing a SKU that is about to run out.
Micromarket
A micromarket is a neighborhood-level market, often a pincode or the cluster of streets served by the same dark stores, with its own demand, price sensitivity and competitors. A micromarkets strategy treats each one as a separate market, so stock, bids, creative and promotions are planned locally instead of as one national plan.
Why it matters on quick commerce: Each dark store serves only a small catchment, so demand, rank and competition change from one neighborhood to the next. A keyword that returns strong ROAS in one micromarket can waste budget in the next.
OSA / dark-store availability
On-shelf availability (OSA), tracked on quick commerce as dark-store availability (DSA), is the share of dark stores where a SKU is in stock and orderable. OSA = dark stores with the SKU in stock ÷ dark stores where it should be available. Weighted availability weights each store by its sales, so gaps in busy stores count for more.
Why it matters on quick commerce: A SKU can be listed but not live. Where it is out of stock in the dark stores serving a pincode, ads there are wasted and shoppers buy a competitor instead. Consistent availability also supports search rank.
PO fill rate
PO fill rate is the share of a platform’s purchase order that a brand delivers. PO fill rate = units delivered ÷ units ordered, tracked by SKU and warehouse. Quick commerce platforms raise POs to stock the warehouses that feed their dark stores, so short or rejected POs show up later as dark-store gaps.
Why it matters on quick commerce: A short PO on a fast-moving SKU turns into empty dark-store shelves and wasted ad spend. Not every PO deserves stock, though: reading POs against DRR and DOH shows which to fill in full, which to part-fill and which to reject.
ROAS
ROAS, or return on ad spend, measures the sales attributed to your ads for each rupee spent. ROAS = ad-attributed sales ÷ ad spend, usually written as a multiple, so 3× means ₹3 of attributed sales per ₹1 spent. On quick commerce it is read by keyword, city, hour and campaign, and depends on when you read it.
Why it matters on quick commerce: ROAS shows efficiency, not opportunity. A strong average can hide dead hours, weak cities or keywords your organic listing already wins, so read it at keyword, location and hour level, alongside share of voice and stock.