On Friday, Blinkit, the rapid-commerce division of Zomato, a leading food delivery platform, announced a notable increase in the sales of gold and silver coins, as well as other products related to Dhanteras festivities.
On Dhanteras, quick-commerce platforms like Swiggy Instamart and Zepto were also offering gold and silver coins for sale, aligning with the auspicious tradition of purchasing items made of gold, silver, and brass.
“Dhanteras muhurat (auspicious time) hasn’t even started and we’re already close to hitting half of the gold and silver coins sales from last year,” Albinder Dhindsa, chief executive of Blinkit, wrote in a post on microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) before 12 in the afternoon. “Thankfully, we took a big bet and have enough to serve the high demand.”
Dhanteras, also known as Dhanatrayodashi, is the first day of the Diwali festival in various regions of India.
In addition to coins, there has been an increase in the buying of brooms, a practice deemed auspicious on this day.
“We learned that it is auspicious to buy jhadu (brooms) today when brooms got stocked out at all our dark stores on Dhanteras 2 years ago,” Dhindsa tweeted later, with a graph showing the increase in sales of brooms as compared to last Friday.
According to Dhindsa, fresh flowers and leaves were another category experiencing high sales for Blinkit.
“Most sold within the category are lotus flowers and pooja leaves which are used for Lakshmi Pooja on Dhanteras,” he posted on X.
Items deemed auspicious to purchase on Dhanteras, like steel utensils and home electronics, were also in high demand on rapid-commerce platforms.
Blinkit has been promoting its 10-minute deliveries for Dhanteras sales, a tradition it upholds each year. As per a post by Dhindsa, on October 22 last year, the platform achieved a rate of selling 200 coins per minute.
Blinkit has been actively promoting high-volume seasonal items, including significant purchases throughout the year, coinciding with events such as cricket matches, festivals, New Year’s Eve, and even on iPhone launch days.
For the quarter ending in September, Blinkit disclosed a positive contribution margin, calculated as revenue minus various costs like store operation expenses, delivery costs, wastage, and packaging costs. This marked the first time it achieved this milestone, while the parent company Zomato sustained profitability for the second consecutive quarter. The contribution margin, expressed as a percentage of the gross order value, stood at 1.3% in the most recent quarter, a notable improvement from the -7.3% recorded in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, with the quarterly contribution amounting to INR 36 crore.
On November 3, it was reported that Blinkit experienced an increase in its average order value, reaching INR 607 compared to INR 568 a year ago. The quick-commerce division saw a substantial rise in gross order value, reaching INR 2,760 crore from INR 1,482 crore recorded a year earlier.