Blinkit launches feature to allow brands to create custom stores on app

Albinder Dhindsa, CEO and Founder, Blinkit (previously Grofers).

Zomato-owned quick commerce firm Blinkit has launched a feature to allow brands on its app to create micro-stores and promote their products. As a part of the new set of features, brands will be able to track analytics on a custom landing page within the app and implement their own design languages.

“These new age brands don’t yet have the prowess to tell their story to customers using mass media. At the same time, all brands want to really target their products and services in a way, which stays true to their brand identity and beliefs,” the company said in a blog post.

Once set up, brands can also look at real-time analytics around the performance of their pages, and what is working and what is not. This, coupled with insights into sell-throughs and supply chain tools give brands a near real-time view into their performance - both on the app and in different geographies.

At present, Blinkit is operational in over 500 localities and lets users buy over 13,000 items on the platform.

The company posted losses of Rs 288.5 crore in Q3 of FY23, reporting its first full quarter numbers after being acquired by Zomato.

Blink Commerce’s loss from the time it was acquired by Zomato (August 10, 2022) to December 31 came at Rs 483.4 crore.

Meanwhile, the company's adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) losses narrowed to Rs 227 crore from Rs 259 crore on a sequential basis, even as its revenue surged nearly 30 percent to Rs 300 crore.

Its gross order value (GOV) came in at Rs 1,749 crore, an increase of 18 percent sequentially from Rs 1,482 crore. This, the company said, was due to a 21 percent increase in order volumes.

The platform had 31 lakh transacting customers in Q3, up from 26 lakh in the preceding quarter, and 3.16 crore orders during the quarter, up from last quarter’s 2.61 crore.

Blinkit’s gross order value per dark store per day shot up from Rs 4.22 lakh to Rs 5.24 lakh. The company said it has not increased its dark store footprint.

Albinder Dhindsa, the founder of Blinkit, said earlier that any macro slowdown doesn’t have a visible large-scale impact on the company’s growth metrics.