Pay more for quick deliveries: Instamart, Zepto, Blinkit tweak pricing to curb losses

In a further move to improve margins, most quick commerce platforms have also increased their minimum order values for customers to avail free delivery

Quick commerce platforms have started introducing a new set of fees and handling charges—including basket size levies, small-order surcharges, and weather-related fees like rain charges—in a bid to improve unit-level profitability, according to a report by The Economic Times on Monday.

Starting this month, companies such as Instamart, Zepto, and Blinkit, which run popular quick commerce apps, have increased the charges applied to orders that do not meet a specified minimum order value (MOV). These new charges are in addition to the regular platform and service fees already applicable, the report said.

As an example, Zepto has implemented a handling fee for orders below Rs 175. Instamart—Swiggy’s quick commerce arm—has revised its MOV to Rs 99. Meanwhile, Blinkit not only applies a “quick delivery” charge but also adds extra fees for bulk orders or discounted purchases.

In some cases, these platforms also impose higher handling fees on larger carts. Additionally, a surge charge may apply during peak hours or when delivery personnel are in short supply and the order falls below a certain value.

Together, Blinkit, Instamart, and Zepto—which are owned or operated by major players like Eternal Ltd and Swiggy—account for 80-85% of India's quick commerce market.

While such fees are standard across the digital economy—including food delivery, travel booking, movie ticketing, and major ecommerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart—they carry greater weight in the quick commerce sector. This is largely due to intensifying competition, which has led firms to form tie-ups with pharmacies and rival services like BigBasket’s BBnow and Flipkart Minutes, even as heavy discounting continues to strain profit margins, the ET report noted on June 16.

In a further move to improve margins, most quick commerce platforms have also increased their minimum order values for customers to avail free delivery. This shift is seen as an effort to encourage higher average order values (AOV). According to analysts at JM Financial, such fee hikes and policy adjustments are likely to improve platform "take rates", which represent the ratio of a platform’s revenue to the total gross value of orders.

Executives in the industry acknowledged that the rising delivery charges are beginning to influence how platforms manage the gap between what they earn from customers and what they pay gig workers for last-mile delivery.

"Besides the cost of expanding dark stores, one of the key challenges remains the inability to raise take rates,” a senior official at a leading quick commerce firm told ET. “Many platforms are pricing certain products higher while offering deep discounts or free deliveries on others to balance the equation.”

As per the latest available data, market leader Blinkit recorded an operational loss of Rs178 crore during the January to March quarter.