Busy stores don’t always mean bigger profits: Why Blinkit continues to outpace Zepto despite the quick-commerce race

For much of the past year, the debate around India’s quick-commerce sector has centred on who is adding more dark stores and processing more orders. But a series of brokerage reports published over the past four months suggests investors are increasingly looking beyond network expansion and market share to judge the industry’s long-term winners.

Research notes from JM Financial (March), ICICI Securities (April, following Eternal’s March-quarter earnings), Motilal Oswal (July) and the latest Jefferies report on Zepto’s IPO filing (July) indicate that while competition is intensifying, profitability and unit economics are emerging as the key differentiators.

Higher store throughput, but lower earnings

The latest Jefferies report, which analysed Zepto’s IPO filing, notes one of the most interesting paradoxes in the industry.

During the March quarter (Q4FY26), each Zepto dark store processed around 2,071 orders a day, compared with 1,425 for Blinkit. For FY26 as a whole, Zepto averaged 1,618 orders per store per day, ahead of Blinkit’s 1,417, indicating stronger throughput at the store level.

Yet Blinkit continues to lead on most financial metrics.

According to Jefferies, Blinkit processed 917 million orders in FY26 compared with Zepto’s 640 million, while operating 2,243 dark stores, nearly twice Zepto's 1,139. More importantly, Blinkit’s net average order value stood at ₹530, substantially higher than Zepto’s ₹357, allowing it to generate more revenue from every transaction. The brokerage also estimates Blinkit has already reached adjusted EBITDA break-even, while Zepto remained loss-making despite improving unit economics.

Jefferies attributes part of the difference to strategy. While Blinkit has focussed on improving monetisation through higher basket values, advertising income and stronger take rates, Zepto has adopted an Everyday Low Price (EDLP) model aimed at driving customer frequency through lower prices.

A changing investment narrative

Interestingly, the brokerages show how the investment narrative around Eternal has evolved over the past few months.

In March, when Eternal’s shares had corrected sharply amid concerns over Amazon, Flipkart Minutes, and Zepto, JM Financial argued that the market had become overly pessimistic. The brokerage said Blinkit’s leadership in logistics, customer retention and network scale would be difficult to replicate, adding that building a food-delivery or quick-commerce platform requires far more than capital alone.

A month later, ICICI Securities, after Eternal’s quarterly earnings, shifted the conversation towards execution. Rather than attributing the recovery in food delivery to stronger consumption, it said growth was being driven by affordability initiatives, lower minimum order values and higher ordering frequency. The brokerage also noted that Blinkit’s monthly transacting users had overtaken those of the food-delivery business for the first time, indicating its growing importance within Eternal’s ecosystem.

The Motilal Oswal report published this month builds further on that thesis. Describing Blinkit as a “generational opportunity”, the brokerage said investors were placing too much stress on near-term competitive pressures instead of improving economics. “Near-term share may fluctuate, but we believe the category remains underpenetrated enough for growth to remain the primary value driver,” the report said. It also argued that Eternal should increasingly be viewed as a platform with three growth engines—Food Delivery, Blinkit and District—rather than as a single-business company.

From expansion to economics

Taken together, the reports suggest analysts are no longer judging quick-commerce companies primarily by the number of stores they open.

Instead, metrics such as average order value, take rates, advertising revenue, contribution margins, order density and EBITDA per order are becoming the key measures of competitiveness.

Jefferies also points out that advertising is emerging as an increasingly important revenue stream. Zepto’s advertising revenue grew more than 150% in FY26 and accounted for nearly 8% of its net revenue value, stressing how retail media is becoming a significant profit driver across the sector.

The report further notes that Blinkit remains the benchmark against which rivals are measured, leading the industry in order volumes, average basket size and profitability despite processing fewer orders per store than Zepto.

If the first phase of India’s quick-commerce boom was defined by customer acquisition and dark-store expansion, the next phase appears set to be decided by who can earn the most from every order rather than who can fulfil the most orders.