
Zepto - What a joke!
Burning 500 Cr a month!
This is like telling your wife you are "near fidelity", while being on a no-restriction Thailand trip
U want to raise more money, Aadit?

If your company had a certain market share of a fast growing market, you had a lot of capital, and competitors like BB FK Jio were entering your space... what would you do?
Burning money and maintaining share/relevance is the fair move for them to do?

Don't see any harm in that. It's the same narrative before every fund raise - We are near profitability... And then raise funds, do stupid discounts and inflate your GMV. At some point you have to realise that you're the one spoiling the market. Fk, Jio entering is nothing new. They were always there. But there's a no execution to call them credible threats.

The basic idea is to capture customers for their platform and then kill the competition meaning mom and pop stores. They will have direct purchase agreements with FMCG manufacturers and the eat the margin of distributors and stockists. BTW Udaan was playing in that field but in B2B. Not sure how they are doing. Any idea?

They will eat from MT mostly and some bits from GT as well. In MT, FMcG companies have to sign agreement with supermarkets and hypermarkets for shelf share. That’s always the case. Apart from it, the principal companies(FMCG manufacturers) also are liable for damaged/expired products. Apart from it, the supermarkets get additional money for any promotions done by FMCg brands. This burns a lot of money for manufacturers. Eventually, they will move out to QC if they see it viable. Why QC makes sense for the FMCG companies:
- Needn’t pay for brand visibility or shelf share in dark stores.
- There maybe need for promotion budget on the QC app itself.
- Since there won’t be a planogram for FMCG companies, most likely they would tie up with QC for specific brand led category itself. For Eg. HUL asking QC companies to have a separate category(HUL) for all HUL products itself.
- What’s for the consumers? - Consumers get benefit of discounting plus bank discounts at specific thresholds. Plus save time.
- Ads monetisation - QC companies have huge amount of your data including your CC(the count of cards you have), your payment behaviour. Your personal details including address. This is not the case with supermarkets who will hardly probably have your number alone. QC can maybe later become something on the lines of FB, Google Ads but on a very smaller and niche case.
I, myself have moved to QC, for the following reasons:
- Good discounts and offers specially if I cross 1000 order value. Zepto has been by go to platform for orders with their Super Saver thing. Initially, it was meant to be for immediate requirements but it later turned to be planned purchases.
- Ability to track my purchases across categories and sub-categories, which isn’t possible through other platforms(MT & GT).
- Compared price of veggies with my local supermarket. The price on Zepto is on similar lines with maybe little bit of differences both on higher or lower sides. Though, the freshness of veggies and fruits can be questioned on Zepto, so I mostly buy veggies and fruits from supermarkets(if my order value on Zepto won’t be higher than 1000)
- I don’t buy from local vendors because I need to make UPI payments or cash, doesn’t allow me to track. And 2nd, buying from supermarkets(just veggies) help me get those biodegradable bags, and much I later on utilise as dustbin bags making savings on dustbin bags.
Might have missed out some other pointers. But I feel QC is here to stay and will disrupt for sure.