Blinkit (earlier Grofers) to operate only in under-10-minute delivery areas

Blinkit, formerly Grofers, an online grocery delivery service, which is pivoting to quick commerce, is suspending deliveries in the areas that it cannot service to within 10 minutes, it said on a blog post on Monday. 

“We expect this to impact around 75,000 of the 200,000 daily customers we are serving,” Co-founder and CEO Albinder Dhindsa said. The decision highlights the shift to quick commerce or q-commerce in the ecosystem and the competition among delivery startups promising a 10-minute delivery. 

“We are singularly committed to instant delivery – focusing only on areas where we are serving under 10 minutes, and deprioritizing everything else,” Albinder said in a blog post. 

The move will have a “significant impact for our business size”, he added, underscoring the risk and scope of the q-commerce for Blinkit, but the Zomato-backed unicorn’s systems and infrastructure are built solely with 10 minutes (or less) in mind.

“We are opening a new store every 4 hours and accelerating that pace even further,” he said, adding that it will help to serve all the customers within four weeks from December 20. 

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Grofers rebrands itself as Blinkit, underlines quick commerce

Earlier this year,  the company launched a 10-minute delivery service. 

On December 12, it rebranded itself as Blinkit to prioritise 10-minute deliveries — within the blink of an eye – changing its mission statement to “instant commerce indistinguishable from magic.”

“All our learnings, our team, and our infrastructure is being repurposed to pivot to something with staggering product-market fit – quick commerce,” Albinder has said in a blog post. 

Founded in December 2013 by Albinder Dhindsa and Saurabh Kumar, Blinkit started as an on-demand pick-up and drop-off service in India in Gurugram. In January 2014, the company started delivering grocery and FMCG goods.

The hyperlocal delivery space has been catching the attention of investors and critics alike. 

The concept is based on ‘dark stores', which are large warehouses that store items to be delivered quickly. The players like Swiggy, Bigbasket, Zepto are partnering with local merchants to keep the promise, but are also facing backlash on social media with concerns for delivery agents.