1/ Zepto’s playbook is unraveling in real time. The desperation isn’t subtle—it’s in every pricing decision they’ve made this week. 🚨
They’re hemorrhaging market share, and the response has been to torch every revenue lever that once kept them afloat.
2/ Overnight, Zepto axed:
• Delivery fees above ₹99
• Handling charges
• Surge pricing
• Rain fees
These weren’t niceties. They were margin. Rs 6–30 per order, gone. This isn’t optimization—it’s a distress signal.
3/ Context: these fees funded the hyper-local dark-store model. Removing them means subsidizing every ride, every picker, every bag.
They’re not chasing efficiency. They’re chasing orders—any orders—to mask the bleed in daily active users.
4/ Rewind to Diwali: Zepto flooded the app with near-free items. AOV collapsed. Unit economics? Obliterated.
It bought a brief GMV spike, but the cohort that showed up was pure price-chasers. Retention post-Diwali? Cratered.
5/The burn math is brutal—and it’s not gossip. Cross-verified whispers from Flipkart, Swiggy, Blinkit ops put Zepto at Rs 120–130 loss per order.
At ~15L daily orders, that’s Rs 18–19 Cr burned every day.
6/ Their $450M round?
• USD to INR: ~₹3,800 Cr
• ÷ ₹125/order burn = ~3 Cr orders sustainable
• At 15L/day → ~200 days of runway
That’s mid-2026. Then what?
7/ The deeper trap: the customers they’re “acquiring” are fee-sensitive ghosts. Zero loyalty. When fees return (and they must), churn will be biblical.
This isn’t growth. It’s a controlled demolition of unit economics to delay the inevitable.
9/ Blinkit & Instamart aren’t standing still. They’re selectively matching on hero SKUs while preserving basket margins. Zepto? All-in on the race to zero.
The leader in quick-commerce won’t be the fastest—it’ll be the last one with cash.
Nov 3, 2025 · 5:17 PM UTC
