News Update

Quick Commerce startup Blinkit halts 10 minute delivery operations in selected areas

• ByTejika Bajaj     |    December 21, 2021

Blinkit, a quick commerce startup formerly known as Grofers, has temporarily stopped operations in areas where it cannot service within 10 minutes, co-founder Albinder Dhindsa recently announced in a Twitter post.

The decision comes on the back of the company’s rebranding amid increased competition, with well-funded startups like Mumbai-based Zepto, Swiggy’s Instamart and Google-backed Dunzo all promising to deliver groceries and other essentials in 10-20 minutes.

“In the near term, this call will have a significant impact for our business size and for a large number of our customers,” according to the statement by Dhindsa. “We expect this to impact around 75,000 of the 200,000 daily customers we are serving. The company is ramping up fast, opening a new store every 4 hours and it is expecting to serve affected customers within 4 weeks.”

Last week, Dhindsa expressed that the rebranding was done to indicate the company’s focus on quick commerce, which is beyond groceries. This could include anything which a customer would want in 10 minutes – from stationery, electronics like mobile chargers to even heaters during winters.

For the model to work, the companies operating in the space will have to find product market fit at a city level and even community level.

Blinkit is present in 12 cities, but Dhindsa said it will take the model to 100 cities by the end of March 2022. It operates 250 dark stores and plans to expand to 550 such stores by the end of January. Dark stores are small warehouses located in the heart of a city through which orders can be delivered faster.

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