Zomato-owned Blinkit to continue investment in newer categories

BENGALURU: Zomato’s quick commerce platform Blinkit, which has been diversifying its offerings, will continue to invest in newer categories.

In the past six quarters, Blinkit has launched products in electronics, beauty & make-up, pet care, and toys & games. The platform announced that it will deliver passport-sized photos in 10 minutes for Delhi and Gurugram customers. Albinder Dhindsa, founder and CEO, Blinkit, in a post on X announced ‘LEGO sets are available on blinkit!’

“We have been focused from the beginning to increase selection for customers and offer it in most efficient way to them… we are now able to offer up to 25,000 unique SKUs (stock keeping units) to our customers in some locations,” he said in a letter to shareholders.

A large part of this expansion in selection has happened outside traditional grocery segments of FMCG, fruits & vegetables and staples, he added. The CEO said they have been adding SKUs over last four quarters. “Some of our categories have become a major percentage of the platform. As a result, they are now starting to contribute meaningfully to growth number,” he said in Q1 earnings conference call.

Blinkit aims to raise its dark stores to 2,000 by 2026. “Our average GOV (gross order value) throughput per store has grown from Rs 6 lakh per day per store when we were at 383 stores a year ago to Rs 10 lakh today when we are at 639 stores. For our top 50 stores today, this number is Rs 18 lakh per day per store and growing,” he said.

Dhindsa added that their preference is always to open larger stores. “Our attempt is to make sure that every new store that we open is eventually run by a local partner,” he said.

Blinkit wants to stick to delivering all assortments in 10 minutes. He said the platform’s GOV is made up of incremental growth in consumption.

“Our model is able to deliver products that have been otherwise harder to access for customers. For instance, we believe, of the sales that we generate in ice-creams, 2/3rd is incremental. This is the demand that would have gone unaddressed if we hadn’t built capabilities to deliver ice-creams in minutes,” he added.