Non-Grocery Online Shoppers Are Shifting To Blinkit: CEO Dhindsa

Zomato-owned Blinkit is seeing an increasing number of ecommerce users shift to the quick commerce vertical, the latter’s CEO Albinder Dhindsa has said.

Blinkit posted another strong quarter of results, with the quick commerce vertical’s revenue jumping 22% quarter-on-quarter to INR 942 Cr in Q1 FY25. Gross order value (GOV) rose 130% year-on-year (YoY) and 22% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to INR 4,923 Cr.

Dhindsa attributed Blinkit’s growth to a shift in consumers of next-day delivery ecommerce platforms to the quick commerce platform. “… This has led to a direct share shift of a number of non-grocery use cases to quick commerce where customers were primarily reliant on e-commerce for buying these products,” he said in Zomato’s shareholders’ letter. 

Besides, Dhindsa also said that a lot of demand in the “festive and impulse categories” is incremental demand, as it would have gone unaddressed without quick commerce. 

He also said that Blinkit has been able to bolster its position by gaining customers from mid-premium range modern retail chains in large cities.

“These are outlets that were able to attract audiences with larger assortment and wide choice of brands, with a significant salience of daily use premium items. We have been able to offer an equivalent or better experience across these vectors to customers, with the added convenience of quick home delivery. Our network efficiency and service quality will continue to help us compete effectively with these players,” he added. 

Blinkit’s adjusted EBITDA loss improved to INR 3 Cr in Q1 FY25 from INR 133 Cr in Q1 FY24. In its shareholders’ letter for Q1 FY25, Zomato said the quick commerce vertical was able to sustain the adjusted EBITDA break-even, which it attained in March 2024, in the April-June quarter.

Besides, Blinkit also seems to have increased its target for the total number of stores it plans to have. While disclosing the financials for the March quarter, the company said it was aiming to get to 1,000 stores by the end of FY25. 

However, in the Q1 shareholder letter, Dhindsa said that the company is seeing a “line of sight” of about 2,000 stores by the end of 2026. A majority of these stores will be in the top 10 cities. 

It is pertinent to note that the competition for Blinkit in the quick commerce space is increasing due to the rising popularity of 10-minute deliveries. While Blinkit’s competitor Zepto bagged a cheque of $665 Mn in June to scale its operations, ecommerce majors like Amazon, Flipkart and Reliance’s Jio Mart are also eyeing an entry in the space. 

Commenting on the increasing competitive intensity in the category, Dhindsa said it has been the case since the inception of the category. 

“However, our customers, who value quality of service and reliability, seem to be unaffected and that reflects in our performance of the quarter, where we have grown 20%+ without the need to match the spends or subsidies of our competitors,” he added.

Overall, Zomato posted a net profit of INR 253 Cr in Q1 FY25 on an operating revenue of INR 4,206 Cr.