Quick commerce firms saw love bloom online on Valentine’s Day with platforms like Zepto, Swiggy and Blinkit reporting record-breaking sales.
There was a surge in orders in categories like flowers, chocolates, perfumes and contraceptives, said executives at the three firms.
Zepto, Swiggy Instamart and Zomato-owned Blinkit likely posted their best-ever single-day sales, surpassing their previous records set on New Year’s Eve, the executives said, without elaborating.
Zepto’s sales on Valentine’s Day jumped 20-25% compared to business as usual (BAU) days counted till January-end, cofounder and chief executive Aadit Palicha told ET. Events in the run up to Valentine’s Day like ‘Rose Day’ and ‘Chocolate Day’ also saw 10-15% sales increases compared to that particular BAU baseline for Zepto.
Swiggy Instamart, on the other hand, saw sales spike in categories like roses, plants, cards, teddy bears and perfumes, its food marketplace chief executive officer Rohit Kapoor said in a post on X. “Flower orders have experienced a 22X surge by noon, while the demand for chocolates has witnessed a remarkable 10X increase, compared to a normal day,” a Swiggy spokesperson said in a statement, without disclosing exact numbers.
“Pretty sure we’ll end up hitting our highest ever orders in a day too (NYE 2023 is highest till now),” Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa said in a post on X. As of around 6 pm, the firm had seen record sales of roses, flower bouquets, chocolates, and teddy bears, and was also seeing the highest ever orders per minute, Dhindsa said.
Data from checkout services provider Simpl showed the overall food and quick commerce categories clocking a 36% increase in transactions, trailing the 154% surge in the services segment comprising firms like BookMyShow.
The higher average selling prices (ASP) in high-demand categories like chocolates, perfumes and teddy bears were also lifting average order values (AOV) for quick commerce firms, according to senior industry executives. For Zepto, the AOV was about 10% higher than the BAU range, Palicha said.
Events like Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve are becoming key demand generators that set new baselines and drive user acquisition, industry executives said.
First-time buyers at Zepto jumped about 50% this Valentine’s Day compared to BAU days, Palicha said. Moreover, the retention of first-time buyers who emerge during major sale events has been at the same rate as those onboarded during BAU days, he added.
“This is a little like the early days of Amazon and Flipkart in India, when new users try out the platform for an occasion and then stay on it… I would argue the events play is even more potent for quick commerce, because unlike ecommerce, it is not spread over a few days but is immediate,” Palicha said.
