Blinkit, Instamart gain in quick commerce as Zepto stalls in Q1
In the first quarter of fiscal 2026, Blinkit's gross order value (GOV) is expected to have grown more than 25% quarter-on-quarter, ICICI Securities said in a report. The brokerage estimates Instamart's growth to be 22%.
In comparison, the quick commerce sector as a whole expanded less than 20% sequentially, 'implying that both players gained market share', it said. Quick commerce platforms are now focusing heavily on profitability by improving average order values (AOV) and slowing the pace of dark store additions, the report said.On a yearly basis, Blinkit is projected to report a 140% increase in GOV and Instamart 110%, as per the brokerage firm.The parents of Blinkit and Instamart are listed. They have yet to declare the April-June quarter results. Zepto, their nearest rival, is privately owned and doesn't declare quarterly numbers.
In the January-March period of FY25, Blinkit's GOV rose 134% from a year earlier, faster than Instamart's growth of 101%. However, Blinkit, which is the market leader in the segment, reported an operational loss of Rs 178 crore for the quarter, almost five times wider than the same quarter a year earlier. Instamart's operating loss widened nearly threefold to Rs 840 crore in the quarter, as it focused on rapidly adding dark stores, or mini warehouses. 'Blinkit and Instamart's market share is increasing because of new customer additions and existing quick commerce users shifting apps and increasing AOV,' said Satish Meena, founder of Datum Intelligence, an ecommerce and quick commerce consultancy firm. 'A lot of this shift in user base is happening from Zepto because there is growing concern of the platform's pricing pattern, customer service and other things,' he said.According to Datum Intelligence, the daily active users for both Zepto and Blinkit were 5.5 million in December 2024. In June 2025, this number reduced to 4.9 million for Zepto, but rose to 6.2 million for Blinkit. Meanwhile, the Instamart standalone app, which was launched in January this year, had a daily active user count of 1.1 million in June. Instamart is also available on the main Swiggy app.
Focus on profitability As competitive intensity cools off in the sector—seen through rationalising discounts and marketing spends—companies are increasingly focused on improving their unit economics.According to the ICICI Securities report, the performance marketing spends of both Blinkit and Instamart have remained muted in the first quarter of FY26. This expense represents the spending on customer acquisition and for promoting offerings such as 10-minute food delivery.At the same time, platforms are focusing on increasing their AOV by offering discounts on high-cart value orders. For instance, Instamart has introduced 'Maxxsaver', which offers users more discounts on shopping for Rs 799 at least. Under Zepto's 'Super Saver', users get more discounts when shopping for a minimum of Rs 499. 'Our recently added segment, which gives more discounts to users on bulk orders, has been very popular among users and doing well,' said a senior quick commerce executive. 'Overall, the focus has also been on increasing SKUs (stock-keeping units) in the current dark stores for a while now and it continues.'
In another attempt to increase profitability, quick commerce players have begun adding a range of fees—from platform and handling charges to convenience, small-cart and rain levies—to customer orders to shore up their unit economics, ET reported on June 30. Such service fees go directly to the revenue and subsequently leads to margin improvement for the companies.New additions of both dark stores and mother warehouses by the top three quick commerce players – Blinkit, Zepto and Instamart – are also expected to be lower in the first quarter of FY26 in comparison to Q4 of FY25, according to brokerage firms.
Blinkit and Instamart are expected to have reduced their dark store addition to about 250 and 80 new stores in the first quarter of FY26 from 294 and 316 stores, respectively, added in the previous three months, according to analysts at JM Financial. 'This is mainly because Instamart and Zepto have already exceeded their near-term dark store targets of 1,000+ … while Blinkit is on track to achieving its 2,000 dark stores guidance by December 2025.'
Also Read: How dark stores are powering quick commerce's rise
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