Zomato has started a pilot trial of delivering groceries through Blinkit on its main app in Delhi-NCR, as the online food aggregator aims to “accelerate” the 10-minute delivery platform’s journey to profitability.
According to company sources, the pilot trial is currently being conducted in select circles in Delhi-NCR, and after analyzing the response, it will be expanded to other cities as well.
Currently, those parts of the pilot project can be ordered through Blinkit on Zomato’s main app for a minimum order value of Rs 150, while on Zomato it is Rs 49.
After the acquisition of Blinkit closes, Zomato will experiment with leveraging its customer base for Blinkit and vice versa, insists its founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal.
“The Blinkit app will continue to operate independently. We will also begin work on integrating delivery fleet back-ends, thereby promoting higher delivery efficiency over time,” he said in a letter to shareholders.
The technological integration between the two companies will accelerate the pace of progress at both ends.
According to the company, Blinkit’s losses are shrinking every month — from Rs 2,040 million (about $26 million) in January 2022 to 929 million ($12 million) in July.
Blinkit has also closed several unviable dark stores that were not scaling and the team will continue to evaluate non-performing stores.
In just six months, the Blinkit business has grown to 20 percent of Zomato’s food delivery government, while being present in less than 15 cities.
“Accelerated commerce deduction across a wide range of essential expenses including grocery, fruits and vegetables, beauty and personal care, OTC medicines, stationery items, among others. Therefore, we expect an overall customer base, average order value as well as monthly order frequency To be more than food delivery,” according to the company.
Blinkit announced last week delivering printouts to people’s doors in an instant.