Where does Zepto's GOV stand in front of rivals?

Time of India

26-05-2025

Zepto's GOV is set to surpass Rs 2,400 crore in May, up 220% year-on-year, with an annualised run rate of $3.4 billion. It trails Blinkit's $4.4 billion but outpaces Instamart's $2.2 billion. Zepto has also reported improved Ebitda and reduced cash burn, contrasting rivals' rising losses amid dark store expansion.
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Quick commerce platform Zepto's gross order value (GOV) will cross Rs 2,400 crore this month , up a whopping 220% from about Rs 750 crore in May 2024, its cofounder and chief executive Aadit Palicha said in a LinkedIn post on Sunday.This represents an annualised gross sales run rate of around $3.4 billion, or around Rs 28,800 crore, which could be higher than rival Swiggy Instamart Palicha had last month said the Bengaluru-based company's annualised GOV run rate is expected to cross $4 billion soon.So, where does it stand compared to its key rivals? Eternal 's Blinkit , which is the market leader in quick commerce, reported a 134% year-on-year increase in its GOV for the March quarter at Rs 9,421 crore. Its annualised GOV is $4.4 billion (around Rs 37,684 crore).Swiggy Instamart 's GOV doubled year-on-year to Rs 4,670 crore for the March quarter, translating into an annualised GOV of $2.2 billion (Rs 18,680 crore).GOV is simply the total value of all orders placed on a platform. However, different players define it differently. Zepto, unlike its rivals, includes ad revenue.GOV considers the maximum retail price (MRP) of goods sold on a platform. In the case of fruits and vegetables, which don't have an MRP, all the three players use the final selling price of the product.GOV also includes various fees and charges that are levied on the users, including handling charges, processing fees, convenience charges and the actual delivery fees paid by the consumers.However, GOV as a metric, does not account for the discounts extended by the platform, brands or banks and credit card partners.Blinkit recently announced a new metric for calculation called net order value (NOV) during its January-March quarter results. The company calculates NOV by subtracting discounts (funded by the platform and its brand partners) from GOV.The decision to include this metric comes after the company observed a widening gap between Blinkit's GOV and the actual amount paid by the customer. This is happening because a product's MRP (maximum retail price) is usually significantly higher than its market selling price, the company noted in its Q4 results announcement.Swiggy Instamart also started announcing its NOV numbers from the March quarter's results along with the GOV numbers.Blinkit is heavily focused on expanding its dark store network to outpace competitors in the rapid delivery space. Currently, it has over 1,300 dark stores, and plans to have 2,000 stores by the end of 2026.Swiggy Instamart and Zepto are closely matched in terms of dark store count, operating over 1,000 stores each.Palicha said in the LinkedIn post that Zepto was ramping up store additions.Tatas-owned BigBasket has a network of over 500 dark stores, while Flipkart Minutes, one of the most aggressive players in the space, operates around 400 mini-warehouses and plans to increase this to 800 by year-end.Palicha said a majority of Zepto's dark stores will be fully Ebitda -positive by the next quarter. He said the company's Ebitda has improved by 2,000 basis points (20 percentage points) between January and May 2025, with cash burn down 65% during the same period.Meanwhile, Blinkit and Instamart's losses have been expanding as these companies step up on their dark store additions.The growth in Eternal's quick commerce arm pushed operating revenue to surge 64% on-year to Rs 5,833 crore, but its expansion plans cost the company and pushed up the operating losses by 75% sequentially to Rs 178 crore.For Instamart, adjusted Ebitda loss increased to Rs 840 crore against Rs 304 crore in the year-ago period.