Is Traditional Commerce Coming back?

 While we regularly hear VCs and brokerage houses being bullish about food delivery and quick-commerce, I believe a growth (speed-breaker) / impediment is near :-

👉 Business context : In the last couple of years (some may read as decade as well!) many new business models (app-first and based on convenience) have sprung-up largely to cater to Gen-Z populations (early adopters) based out of our urban centers

👉 Digital detox and rise of dumb phones : While I heard the term "digital detox" first somewhere around 2018 (might be existent much earlier as well) - it led to people shutting off digital social media apps for sometime and then more recently we saw a couple of our younger audiences moving back (trying to move back) to dumb phones from smartphones

👉 What was the impact : Rise in sales of dumb phones (though still a small fraction of overall market but observing growth); 2021 also observed a comparatively muted social media engagement which did spring up back. Rising searches for "mental health" & "digital detox" continue to be on the rise

👉 Relation with food delivery/quick commerce : Similar to digital detox, moving back to traditional commerce is also not far since there are couple of commonalities between "quick commerce" and "everything digital"

- Both disconnect individuals from their outside world in name of convenience

- Ads led revenue model create abundance in the human mind and create confusion

- Limited mindfulness whether in content consumption or binge eating

- Inflated "perceived product value" across both mediums