It has emerged as the largest quick commerce platform in India in terms of market share leaving behind Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, and even Tata-backed BB Now and Reliance-backed Dunzo.
But this was not always the case. Almost everyone was skeptical when Zomato announced Blinkit’s acquisition in June 2022.
Investors were so angry about this development that Zomato’s stock price hit its all-time low of Rs 46.80 around the same time.
It did seem fair then. Blinkit had run out of money and 10-minute grocery delivery seemed like an odd idea that had not seen a successful proof of concept in any other country. Zomato had itself tried it twice in India, once in 2020 and then in 2021, and had failed.
But in less than 2 years, Zomato and Blinkit have proved everyone wrong. How though?
Well, Blinkit’s execution is a bit different from its peers.
For example, Blinkit is the only quick-commerce company that generates an inventory purchase order (PO) daily whereas Swiggy Instamart and Zepto do it on a weekly basis.
This means Blinkit’s working capital requirement is the lowest. They don't keep too much inventory in their dark stores avoiding locking of capital or wastage.
Also, Blinkit has a wider range of products sold. It is not limited to groceries, but also clothing, footwear, accessories, reading glasses, electronics like chargers, mobile phones, etc.
A wider product range has multiple benefits. First is the fact that Blinkit can cater to a larger range of customers, increasing their user base.
Another reason is that a large product range leads to average cart size of customers going up, which in turn improves the economics of the delivery for the platform.
Wider range of products also means Blinkit could subsequently compete with e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart.
Do you think it can take on the established e-commerce players with its execution?
Let us know in the comments.
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This post was originally shared by Bhanu Harish Gurram on Linkedin.