(The Weekend Insight) - Quick Commerce Showdown: Zepto vs Blinkit vs Instamart vs BigBasket

In today’s deep-dive, we will explore India’s fast-moving world of quick commerce, where apps promise to deliver your groceries in 10 minutes. From Zepto and Blinkit to Instamart and BigBasket, these platforms are racing to win your attention (and your wallet) with speed, convenience, and clever tech. But which one truly offers the best experience? We’ll look at how each app feels to use, how much they charge, what tricks they play behind the scenes, and what real users are saying.

Quick commerce in India focuses on delivering daily needs incredibly fast. Apps in this space compete fiercely to offer the quickest service, broadest product selection, and most attractive deals. The main players are Zepto, Blinkit, BigBasket (bbnow), and Instamart.

Let’s deep-dive into these apps, and analyze the performance of these quick commerce apps from a user's perspective. We will explore how each one’s user experience, delivery charges, dark patterns and user reviews. We will also analyze their market share, product range and the tech behind their apps.

1. Look and Feel (UI and UX)

A good app is easy to use, and that's super important when you're trying to order groceries fast. Here's how these apps stack up:

• Zepto: This app is all about being clean, simple, and super quick. When you open it, everything is easy to find. Categories are clear, and searching for items works very fast. The UX prioritizes speed, with predictive search and quick-add buttons.

• Blinkit: Blinkit has been around a while, so they've had time to polish their app. Blinkit’s vibrant UI, influenced by Zomato, features carousel banners, a sticky search bar, and voice input.

• BigBasket (bbnow): BB Now’s UI, integrated into BigBasket’s app, is detailed but dated, with filters for organic or vegan products.

• Instamart: If you already use Swiggy for food, this app will feel familiar. Instamart’s colorful UI, embedded in Swiggy’s app, offers bold product cards and unified food/grocery carts.

Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart lead with polished, vibrant user interfaces that prioritize ease of navigation and visual appeal, making them stand out. Zepto’s minimalist, speed-focused UI excels for quick orders but can feel cluttered for niche items. BigBasket’s BB Now, built on a legacy e-commerce platform, offers detailed filters but feels dated and less optimized for instant delivery.

2. Delivery Fees and Free Delivery Rules

In the highly world of Indian Q-commerce, delivery charges, platform fees, and minimum order values (MOV) for free delivery are key factors influencing consumer choice. These costs can make or break the perceived value of a 10–20-minute delivery promise.

Blinkit stands out with its explicit delivery charges, while competitors like Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, and BigBasket (BB Now) often waive delivery fees for a modest ₹99 MOV, though with nuances like platform fees and dark patterns that subtly inflate costs. There are few dark patterns also, in Zepto as they add default membership and shipping as well.

Disclaimer: The delivery fees is different for different cities, based on several parameters. The ones below are for Noida.

3. Repeat Orders

Repeat order grouping streamlines reordering experience. Blinkit is great at this. They have a clear "My Orders" section where you can see past orders. Often, there's a quick button to add all those items back to your cart, which saves a lot of time for your regular shopping list.

Zepto also lets you see your "My Orders" history. While it might not always have a single button to reorder everything from your last purchase, you can easily look at past orders and add items back to your cart.

The others also have similar features but not as good as Blinkit. BigBasket has "Smart Basket" feature, while Instamart doesn’t do a good job in re-ordering from past orders.

4. User Reviews

Here are some of the reviews about these apps:

Zepto:

• Good: "Super fast delivery," "app is clean and easy to use," "good initial discounts."

• Bad: "Not a huge selection of products," "delivery fees keep going up," "customer service can be slow," "prices are different on iPhone vs. Android," "Had to manually remove the shipping charge; it was added automatically."

Blinkit:

• Good: "Huge variety of items, like a small supermarket," "lots of sales and offers," "mostly reliable delivery," "great for ordering the same things again."

• Bad: "Sometimes the fresh fruits/veggies aren't great quality," "delivery guys sometimes cancel orders," "refunds can take a while," "they suddenly increased the free delivery amount," "hidden fees."

BigBasket:

• Good: "Excellent quality for fresh produce," "huge selection, even fancy items," "scheduled delivery is great for planning”, “like their refunds for lesser quantity fuits and veggies”

• Bad: "bbnow isn't as fast as competitors," "delivery slots for the main app can be full," "missing items or incorrect products," "AI chatbot support can be frustrating."

Instamart:

• Good: "Very fast delivery," "good integration with Swiggy food delivery," "offers and discounts are attractive," "good for impulse purchases."

• Bad: "Inconsistent product quality," "issues with wrong or tampered products," "customer support responsiveness varies greatly," "delivery charges keep increasing and vary per user," "basket sneaking (adding free items automatically)."

5. Dark Patterns

These are clever ways apps can try to make you spend more or do things you didn't mean to. Out of these apps, Zepto is the most notorious one.

• Zepto's Dark Patterns:

  • Different Prices for Different Phones (Price Differentiation): Some users have noticed that the prices for the same items can be different if you check on an iPhone versus an Android phone. This is a sneaky way to charge different customers different amounts.

  • Default Shipping/Delivery Charges: We have seen Zepto add a shipping or delivery charge to your order, even if the order qualified for free delivery. You have to manually remove it or select an option to get free delivery, which can be easily missed.

• General Dark Patterns Used by Other Apps :

  • Changing Prices (Dynamic Pricing): This is very common with Zepto, Blinkit, and Instamart. Prices for items, delivery fees, and even the amount you need to spend for free delivery can change based on:

    • Time: Prices might be higher during busy hours.

    • Demand: Popular items might cost more when lots of people want them.

  • Hidden Fees:

    • All these apps often add small "handling fees" or "platform fees" that only show up right before you pay, after you've already chosen your items.

    • Users have reported "basket sneaking" where unwanted "free" items (like extra tomatoes) are automatically added to your cart, and you can't easily remove them. While they're "free," it's annoying if you don't need them.

6. Market Share and Growth

The Indian Q-commerce market is expected to be worth around $5-$5.38 billion by 2025, and it grew by about 75% from 2024 to 2025.

• Blinkit, backed by Zomato, is the leader, holding about 46% of the market.

• Instamart commands about 25% of the market share. Being part of Swiggy, it leverages a huge existing user base.

• Zepto is the aggressive player, with around 29% market share. It's an underdog who has stolen the spotlight. Zepto is estimated to have an annualized sales run rate of about $1.5 billion.

• BigBasket is a more niche player in the quick commerce space, often focusing on existing BigBasket users, with a smaller share of around 7%.

7. Logistics and Dark Store Infrastructure

Behind the quick delivery is a complex network of "dark stores". These are basically mini-warehouses that aren't open to the public, but only for fast online orders.

• Dark Store Networks: Blinkit recently crossed 1,000 dark stores and aims for 2,000 by December 2025. Zepto is estimated to have around 1,147, and Instamart aims to hit 1,000 this month (June 2025).

• Inventory Management: All of them use smart systems to know exactly what's in stock at each dark store in real-time. This helps them avoid running out of popular items and ensures speedy picking.

• Last-Mile Delivery: This is about getting the order from the dark store to your door.

  • Electric Vehicles (EVs): Many are pushing for green deliveries. Instamart aims to transition to a 100% EV fleet by 2030, and Blinkit says about 80% of its delivery fleet in Gurugram is already electric. They use e-bikes and scooters to navigate city traffic.

  • Gig Worker Challenges: The delivery partners are often gig workers, and there have been challenges. For example, in 2023, some Blinkit workers went on strike in Varanasi demanding better pay and conditions, leading to temporary disruptions. There have also been stories recently of Zepto workers going on strikes.

8. Product Range and Category Expansion

While they started with groceries, these apps are quickly adding more and more items.

• Core Offerings: All apps focus on daily essentials like fruits, vegetables, dairy, snacks, and personal care items.

• Non-Grocery Categories:

  • Blinkit has been very aggressive, selling everything from iPhones and gaming consoles to home decor.

  • Instamart is also looking beyond groceries, exploring categories like apparel and jewelry.

• Private Labels: To make more profit, platforms are creating their own brands.

  • BigBasket has popular in-house brands like 'BB Royal' for staples and 'BB Popular' for other goods.

  • Blinkit also has its own private label products to boost profit margins.

• Sustainability and Sourcing:

  • Local Sourcing: Zepto uses its micro-warehouses to enable local sourcing for fresh produce, which helps with freshness and supports local businesses.

  • Eco-friendly Initiatives: Companies are looking to cut their environmental footprint. Blinkit aims to cut emissions by 30%, while Instamart is using e-bikes to deliver.

9. Technology and AI Integration

• AI-Driven Features:

  • Zepto uses AI for personalized recommendations, which means the app suggests items you're more likely to buy based on your past orders. Zepto claims that this has led to an increase of repeat orders by 20-25%.

  • Instamart uses AI for "route optimization" – basically finding the fastest way for the delivery partner to reach you.

  • Blinkit uses technologies like Firebase and Redis to keep their inventory updated in real-time, so what you see in the app is actually available.

• Dark Pattern Tech: Unfortunately, AI also helps these apps use those sneaky tricks we talked about.

  • Zepto's algorithmic pricing: AI helps them set different prices for different users or devices, as reported by users.

  • Instamart's urgency timers: AI can be used to create false urgency, showing countdowns that pressure users to buy quickly. These tactics can impact user trust.

Which App is Better for You?

There's no single "best" app for everyone, but after doing all this analysis, here are the conclusions we have reached for our own needs and the primary driver is what we need at that moment:

• If we need something delivered super fast and right away: Zepto or Blinkit.

• If we want a wider choice of products, like a mini-supermarket, and don't mind waiting a few extra minutes: Instamart is a strong choice. For bigger, planned grocery runs, the BigBasket app is still excellent for variety and quality.

• If we want to save on delivery fees: We will look into a subscription like Swiggy One for Instamart, or use BigBasket (for more than INR 99 order value).

For most city users who want a good mix of speed and product choice, we would suggest starting with Blinkit or Instamart (especially if you have Swiggy One). Zepto is excellent for sheer speed but be extra careful about checking for dark patterns like different pricing based on your phone or automatically added charges. Always compare prices across these apps before you order, and watch out for those small extra fees that often pop up at the very end!

The quick commerce market in India is always changing. As these companies focus more on making money, expect more strategic shifts in pricing, delivery fees, and service offerings. In the end, informed customers will choose which of these apps will succeed.