New Year’s Eve 2024: Quick commerce, food delivery firms receive record order volumes

Quick commerce is projected to account for about $1 billion in sales (8 percent of the total sales) during the season

The New Year’s Eve ushered in record demand for quick commerce firms, food delivery platforms, and other consumer internet companies. Executives from companies such as Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart and Zepto took to X to share notable consumer trends and never-seen-before order volumes.

“We have already crossed the total number of orders we did on NYE 2023. Happened around 5pm today!” Albinder Dhindsa, chief executive of Blinkit, said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on December 31, 2024.

According to Dhindsa, the company recorded its highest ever orders in a day, highest orders per minute (OPM) and per hour (OPH), as well as highest total tips given to delivery partners in a day.

To accommodate the anticipated large (electronics/party) orders, Blinkit launched its all-electric large order fleet. Currently live in Delhi and Gurugram, the new fleet will be rolled our in other cities as well. Blinkit’s biggest order on NYE was worth Rs 64,988 in Kolkata.

Rival Instamart, too, reported record order volumes, surpassing last year's sales and previous peaks of Mother’s Day and Diwali, said Swiggy Instamart CEO Amitesh Jha. “Categories such as snacks, party essentials, and gifting are seeing the most notable growth. In 2024, Swiggy Instamart expanded to over 42 cities, serving 68 cities currently, ensuring that no celebration—big or small—is ever out of reach," he added.

The company, which operates 24x7, waived off its late-night fees for the day to keep the party going.

Bhubaneswar and Mangaluru emerged as Instamart’s busiest new cities on the occasion, with top orders from these regions being chocolates, chips, and soft drinks, revealed Phani Kishan, co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Swiggy.

A user from Bhubaneswar bought protein bars of Rs 12,000. Cities like Ludhiana, Rajkot, Pondicherry, and Kanpur also saw their surge on Instamart by two-three times, compared to an average day.

The story was not very different for Blinkit, who also saw most of its demand come for products like chips, soft drinks, chocolates, and condoms.

Dhindsa said that Blinkit delivered over 2.34 lakh packets of aloo bhujia, over 45,000 cans of tonic water, more than 6,000 packets of ice cubes, over 1,000 lipsticks and 762 lighters by 8pm.

In a surprise sweep, an obscure favourite of customers turned out to be grapes. Dhindsa claimed that Blinkit sold seven-times the grapes it does than on a regular day. Instamart shared that for the first time ever on NYE, the firm completely sold out its stock of grapes.

Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha took to LinkedIn to share that the company’s sales were up 200 percent, compared to the previous NYE. Zepto was selling as many as 3,345 ice cube packets per hour, up 2.62 times from the last year.

Palicha predicted that in 2025, quick commerce will start hitting a scale where “it will become comparable to e-commerce”. He emphasised that the customer value proposition will level up next year, as unit economics of quick commerce and initiatives to build operating leverage change.

Likewise, Tata-owned grocery delivery platform BigBasket recorded a 1,290 percent increase in ice cube sales, 278 percent rise in mocktails with a 552 percent surge in non-alcoholic beverages. In addition, the platform saw a 325 percent increase in sales of disposable cups and plates.

Also selling in significant numbers were cards and party games, which were up 300 percent, BigBasket CEO Hari Menon shared in a post on X.

To cash in on the growing demand, the Tatas-owned firm is planning to roll out its own quick food delivery service in 2025. The firm will also start medicine deliveries through Tata 1mg next year.

Cloud kitchen players, who typically sell on Swiggy, Zomato and other platforms, said their individual businesses were on a high too. Food and beverage brand Curefoods, for instance, hit record sales, surpassing last year’s orders by 10pm.

Ankit Nagori, founder and CEO of Curefoods, in a post of X said that the company saw the bulk of its orders coming from Bangalore, Chennai, and Mumbai. “Biggest order till now is a 32-pizza order. I guess a startup in Bangalore was celebrating NYE,” he said.

Margherita pizzas, chocolate truffle cakes, and egg biryanis were the platform’s the most frequently ordered dishes. Curefoods, on Tuesday, also announced that it had entered into an agreement with the Landmark Group to acquire operations of Krispy Kreme, the popular doughnut brand, in the South and West of India.