In 7 charts| Discounting as strategy gaining more ground in e-grocery segment: Jefferies

Discounts offered are highest for personal care products, followed by home care; the least offered are for dairy. (Photo by Lisa Fotios: Pexels)

Discounting as a strategy is strengthening across e-grocers, going by brokerage Jefferies' recent report.

This suggests competition heating up in this space, according to the analysts.

Discounting strategy has always been favoured by slotted delivery players (those who deliver during different time slots) but now it seems to be catching on with quick-commerce (QC) players (who deliver within minutes) too. The price gap between the slotted and quick commerce players have reduced significantly when compared to 2023, noted the brokerage's analysts.

Also read: New CPI series could track online grocery prices

The analysts wrote, "Based on our analysis, overall discounting levels are slightly higher today vs. history, suggesting potential increase in e-grocery competition. Interestingly, discounting by QC players has been rising steadily...

...while that for slotted delivery has been range-bound"

In other trends observed, discounts offered are highest for personal care products, followed by home care; the least offered are for dairy.

Amazon Fresh seems to be now focussing more on giving better pricing than quick delivery; and Flipkart and BigBasket seem to be doing the reverse to build their QC platforms.

App traffic meanwhile shows a steady gain in engagement for QC players.

Based on the app traffic data from SensorTower, monthly active users continue to grow steadily for quick commerce players, outpacing slotted delivery (Big Basket, DMart Ready, JioMart). JioMart seems to have seen some decline in its MAUs in recent months.

Monthy active users (in million)

On monthly app downloads, quick commerce continues to see greater traction, said the report.

"Interestingly, Zepto has outpaced Blinkit in app downloads in recent months, as per SensorTower. We also notice an uptick in app downloads for Big Basket in the last 6 months after staying stagnant for a while. JioMart app downloads have declined meaningfully in the last one year," it added.

Monthly app downloads (in million) - 3 month moving average