A recent report by Citi has highlighted that the Swiggy Instamart is behind in the quick commerce race, as Zomato-owned Blinkit and Zepto have cornered a higher market share in India’s highly competitive rapid delivery market.
Swiggy may be in the third spot in quick commerce while in terms of market share, it is behind Blinkit and Zepto.
“We estimate Swiggy’s market share at 23 per cent, and Blinkit’s market share at 41 per cent,” the report said.
“The gap in unit economics and cash burn rate for Swiggy are materially worse relative to Zomato which means there is a lot of ongoing convergence on customer acquisition pace, AOV (average order value) increase, supply chain cost reductions that Swiggy needs to deliver,” it stated.
Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart are operating with total dark store counts of 1,007 and 705, respectively, as of the third quarter of FY25.This figure is around 750 for Zepto, which has been on a funding spree for a year- and -a half.
The Citi report stated that over the medium term, we believe the platform advantage (common overheads, shared tech infrastructure, shared delivery partner fleet) and first-mover advantage (unique supply-chains technology and infrastructure) should be a source of significant competitive advantage for Swiggy (along with the two other leading QC players).
It highlighted that the quick commerce market in India is expected to reach an annualised GOV run rate of $9 billion by the end of FY25 for the top three players, and cross $26 billion by FY28E, growing at a CAGR of 73 per cent.