Oops! The bread got over. What to eat for breakfast? No worries! Simply open an app and get it delivered at your home in under 10 minutes! Yes, that’s how much these online quick commerce apps have made our lives easier. No pain of going all the way to a shop to buy little-little things. Everything became a click away! Online grocery shopping gained quite some popularity all over the world in the last few years. Be it Zepto, Instamart, Blinkit or even Big Basket, these apps are only making things easy (and us lazy!). While thinking on which brand’s marketing strategy I want to research next, the bread got over and while placing the order I made my decision to write on Zepto (just kidding!). Going a mile ahead, my insights and observations are from a customer’s point of view but with the business analysis mindset. With Zepto’s customer first approach, what can new and existing brands learn from it and apply to their own business? Sounds interesting? Keep reading to know more!
What’s The Zepto Brand Story?
Admission in Stanford? A dream come true! But Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra had totally different plans! They took a bold decision to leave the Stanford dream behind and come back to their home country India, later deciding to convert their childhood friendship into business partnership. Zepto was not their first project but it was in 2021 this idea took birth when the limitations and restrictions of the pandemic era limited people at their homes. Buying simple groceries became an upheaval task. A market gap was spotted! The first idea was KiranaKart, a supermarket delivery service, though it did not receive as much attention. But then Zepto was born inspired by it, the rest is history!
Zepto’s startup story is all about catering to a market gap and the focus is on swift, reliable delivery service with the claim being it’s India’s fastest online grocery app (that’s what their website tagline says!). In 2024, Zepto raised multiple rounds of heavy funding and it’s roughly valued at $5 billion. It also plans to go public and launch their IPO later in 2025.
Fun Fact: Do you know the history behind the name Zepto? Zepto denotes a factor of 10-21 which means 0.000000000000000000001 representing very short time aka their 10 minute delivery service! Woah! Math lovers will love this.
Zepto’s Business Model! What Makes it Unique?
The business model of Zepto runs on the lines of addressing the quick commerce business. To fulfill this, they have built multiple dark stores and warehouses at short distances of delivery area to be covered to ensure delivery time is less. A dark store basically means a type of warehouse from where the products can be purchased online but a consumer can’t go directly to buy over there.
Surprisingly, this was not a new concept, but combined with the Zepto’s marketing strategy and the correct timing, they made this work!
Learning From Zepto’s Customer First Model!
While going through multiple case studies on Zepto’s marketing strategies and business strategies, I found a gap too! No one observed things from the point of view of the customer and the prospective learnings for new and existing businesses from it.
Here’s my set of observations about Zepto’s customer first model.
1. Zepto Gift Box on Special Occasions
Starting with my favourite part of Zepto as a consumer! Whether it’s New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day or Diwali or Christmas, Zepto gives this cute gift box along with every order during that occasion’s duration. What’s in the box? Mostly product miniatures of multiple brands that are quite relevant to the occasion as well! What’s more? The box itself is designed thoughtfully with interesting cartoons and graphics that bring a smile on the face! Result? The customer loves the special treatment and actually waits for an occasion to place an additional order knowing Zepto has something special for them.
Key Takeaway: Going an extra mile for the customer is always appreciated and brings them back as regular returning customers too.
2. More Focus on Multiple Brands
Not only prominent brands but new startups and small brands too are available easily on Zepto. From a customer’s perspective this is a win. Availability of more options gives a better shopping experience. Another noticeable point is the products are also listed based on the local preferences.
Key Learning: When catering to a mass audience, understanding their product preferences is a must.
3. Concept of Zepto Super Saver
Moving away from just an app listing groceries and daily essentials, Zepto went a step further, differentiating their regular Zepto segment and Super Saver. If one chooses the super saver, the customer gets additional tiny discounts on the majority of products that are further highlighted in a green colour. The catch? There’s a minimum order value for availing this! As a customer, one doesn’t mind placing a larger order to get the additional discount and for the brand, it increases their AOV.
Key Learning: If you want to increase average order value (AOV) for your own business, you need to give extra perks to make it lucrative for the consumer.
P.S.: They also went a step ahead and segregated the fruits and veggies section. Works for those who are only interested in buying them and nothing else. Made daily veggie shopping so easy!
4. Competitive Pricing, Clear Discount Highlighted
Offering a discount? Then why shy away from putting it in bold letters? That’s one more highlight of the Zepto app I noticed. The MRP is cleverly crossed and the discounted price is written in bold letters for the products ensuring the competitive pricing is highlighted.
Key Learning: Discounts and offers need to be highlighted as much as possible.
5. New Products Launch and Availability
Recently I saw an advertisement for Lays chips, new flavors of the world. Next thing I did, I quickly opened all the grocery apps on my phone to check where they were available. At that time they weren’t available anywhere. Neither on Amazon nor Blinkit and not even on Instamart. Next day, I found one on Zepto. Result? An order was placed even though not many things were needed. In the cut throat quick commerce race, this round was won by Zepto for me!
Key Learning: Staying relevant with the industry trends and tweaking your business to adapt it is a must.
6. The Power of Zepto Cash
Who doesn’t love instant cash discounts? Zepto often gives small denominations of free Zepto cash Like Rs. 50, Rs. 40 or Rs. 75, that can be availed instantly with the next order. These small incentives push the consumer to place an order finally for the products that have been sitting in the cart since ages!
Key Learning: Not only big discounts, small incentives also help a lot in helping the customer make a buying decision.
7. Hard Core Advertising Makes Consumer Aware
When Zepto first came to my home city a few months back, I already started seeing multiple ads on Instagram and even on other websites. They utilised the power of digital advertising very well understanding where and who their target audience is. The zest to download the app to explore more was almost immediate.
Key Learning: In today’s competitive world, spreading the word about the brand’s existence to the correct audience is a must. It can be via digital advertising or even word of mouth publicity.
8. Utility Products Available at a Click
Imagine your brother prefers an electric beard trimmer and one day when he is half way through his trimmer stops working! It simply stops and nothing works. What to do? Simply order it online and get it delivered in 10 minutes! Yes, that’s what multiple online quick delivery apps are offering and one of them is Zepto. Not only groceries, many home utility products like electronics, mobiles, USB cables, power adapters etc. are also available in this quick delivery platform.
Key Learning: Sometimes extending the range of products or services based on audience demand is essential to grow the business. Though this does not apply if your business offers only niche products or services.
9. Simple Addition of Brand Logos in Search Filter
Many times we as consumers associate a brand logo with the brand much more than the name itself. The search filter on Zepto app has a further filter for brands where they added the logo next to the name of the brand too. Just made the whole experience of shopping so much better.
Key Takeaway: Addition of small intricate details also make a big impact on the user experience and consumer journey.
10. The New Swap and Save Feature
You must have heard about this one a lot in the recent news articles as it drew ire of many founders of D2C businesses. Basically this feature means that while reviewing the cart total, the customers will get prospective options of product alternatives that are priced reasonably lower. The quick commerce market being price sensitive, this feature just takes this fight up a notch. From the consumer perspective, it sounds nice though, as one can reduce their billing value. Though this feature is not yet fully rolled out, time will tell how much it clicks with the consumers!
Key Learning: Constantly trying to improve the business and bringing innovation is a must for a business to thrive and grow.
Though not from a consumer point of view, a recent news is that Zepto closed a few of its Zepto Cafe too for some time to align with the supply chain (from a business point of view this once again highlights it is so important to keep a track of numbers and take timely decisions).
Woah! Who knew that simply thinking like a consumer too can help in learning so much for your prospective business. It’s so true what we read in the authentic business management books, thinking like your consumer is the key! There are a few spaces for improvement too where Zepto can work like ensuring more transparency on their cart page and also a few UX changes but this one was more about learning from the positives. Would you like to read more about my observation on brands’ spaces for improvement too? Do tell me your views in the comments section below.