Exclusive: Now, Blinkit’s Bistro Starts Charging Convenience Fee

Eternal-owned Blinkit’s quick food delivery app Bistro has started charging a convenience fee of INR 5 on orders, becoming the latest ecommerce platform to do so.

The convenience fee is shown on Bistro’s final bill summary. It only appears at checkout, leaving users unaware until they reach the final payment stage. 

Bistro has not issued any notice or in-app communication regarding the new fee. Inc42 has sent a questionnaire to Eternal about the convenience fee. The story will be updated on receiving a response. 

The move comes at a time when there is a broader trend of food and quick-commerce platforms levying additional fees to shore up their top and bottom lines. 

Swiggy and Zomato have been gradually introducing or increasing delivery fee, small basket fee, packaging, and convenience fee over the past year. These fees range from INR 10 to INR 30, depending on location, time of day, and order value. 

Zepto charges packaging fee, handling cost and surge pricing on small or peak-time orders.

The Quick Food Delivery Rush

Launched in December last year by Blinkit, Bistro delivers ready-to-eat meals, snacks, and drinks like tea and coffee in 15 minutes. It competes with Zepto Cafe and Swiggy’s SNACC in the quick food delivery market. Bistro was initially being piloted in Guruguram and Blinkit is gradually expanding its services in other areas. 

The latest development comes nearly a month after it was reported that Zepto Cafe temporarily shut operations in several cities in North India, including Agra, Chandigarh, Meerut, Mohali, and Amritsar. The decision affected around 400 workers.

Zepto said the move was taken to address supply chain issues and it planned to reopen the cafes by the end of the next quarter. Zepto was also said to be looking to reduce staff at some cafes to cut costs.

Despite these, quick food delivery continues to be an attractive proposition for startups. Earlier this month, BigBasket began piloting its quick food delivery service in Bengaluru. It plans to scale it to 40 dark stores by July.

Other startups operating in the space include Swish, which raised INR 122 Cr in funding in March this year, and Zing, which was launched around the same same time as Bistro.

[With inputs from Debarghya Sil]