Over the long weekend, Holi festivities boosted online spirits as quick-commerce platforms like Zomato‘s Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart experienced a significant increase in sales. Based on trends as of Monday evening, Swiggy Instamart and Zepto were set to announce record-breaking orders.
Sales were driven by Holi-related items like color (gulaal), sweets, pichkaris, and flowers. Executives from quick-commerce firms also noted a notable increase in demand for related categories such as white t-shirts and coconut oil.
According to insiders, Swiggy Instamart was on track to surpass 700,000 orders in a single day, marking its highest ever. Similarly, Zepto was anticipated to achieve over 600,000 orders, also setting a new record, as per a spokesperson.
On a typical business as usual (BAU) day, Bengaluru-based Swiggy receives approximately 550,000 orders, while Zepto averages around 500,000 orders. Blinkit, as the quick-commerce frontrunner in the nation’s primary markets, boasts approximately 600,000 orders per day.
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Platform executives turned to X to celebrate their Holi sales.
Blinkit co-founder and CEO, Albinder Dhindsa, announced that the company reached its peak order volume per minute (OPM) on Sunday. He mentioned that the firm was “on track to surpass its previous all-time high order record (from Valentine’s Day this year),” without providing specific details.
Phani Kishan Addepalli, Swiggy co-founder and head of Instamart, mentioned that Instamart’s flower sales were five times higher than last year’s Holi, without providing specific details.
Aadit Palicha, co-founder and CEO of Zepto, shared that the platform was also being utilized to purchase items like white t-shirts for Holi.
“People are starting to realise that Zepto serves a lot more use cases than daily grocery,” Palicha said on X.
Festival days are increasingly becoming prime sales events for quick-commerce firms, breaking order records. For instance, on Valentine’s Day, February 14, both Zepto and Swiggy Instamart, as well as Zomato-owned Blinkit, recorded their highest single-day sales ever, surpassing the peaks achieved on New Year’s Eve.
On March 4, it was reported that quick-commerce firms are expanding their product offerings, with a selection comparable to that of e-commerce platforms like Flipkart and Amazon in categories such as fashion, beauty, electronics, toys, as well as home and kitchen.
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With the increase in orders, certain areas in Delhi-NCR reportedly experienced delays and cancellations in deliveries through Swiggy. Inquiries did not receive a response from the company.
“Food delivery companies benefited from event-based surges in the past as well, but quick commerce has identified a very broad range of client needs that can be satisfied, so you see them benefit greatly during events,” an industry executive stated. Nonetheless, many trends do appear to overlap, such as the recent spike in sales of sweets on both Instamart and Swiggy food.
Industry executives mentioned that the primary food delivery services of Zomato and Swiggy were also expected to experience an increase in orders on Monday night, without providing specific details.
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