Blinkit, Swiggy Shift Strategy As Quick Commerce War Enters New Phase, Says JPMorgan
In contrast, Zepto continues to depend heavily on discounts but has cut performance marketing to its lowest level ever.
India’s quick commerce players are recalibrating their strategies, and JPMorgan believes the competitive landscape is quietly undergoing another shift. After months of intense discounting, the battleground is moving away from subsidies and towards performance-led marketing, with Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart taking the lead while Zepto pulls back.
JPMorgan in its report on Thursday said that Blinkit and Swiggy have dialled down subsidies over the past three weeks but sharply increased marketing intensity, especially across paid display and paid search.
In contrast, Zepto continues to depend heavily on discounts but has cut performance marketing to its lowest level ever. Zepto’s median discounts have risen 9–10% between late October and early November. This divergence, the brokerage suggests, is altering how platforms pursue customer acquisition and defend market share.
The stability at Blinkit and Instamart indicates they do not feel compelled to counter Zepto’s aggressive pricing. According to JPMorgan, this likely means they have not observed any meaningful market-share erosion. Instead, customers seem to value the broader offering and service proposition rather than just temporary subsidy-led promotions.
Where the competition is heating up is in performance marketing. JPMorgan’s seven-quarter dataset shows Blinkit and Swiggy doubling down on marketing in the third quarter on a pro-rata basis, with spend rising around 30% quarter-on-quarter.
Zepto, meanwhile, has slashed its marketing investment by around 60%, continuing a trend seen over the last four quarters save for a brief spike in the second quarter of this fiscal. This pullback is reflected in Zepto’s declining weekly active users over the past two months, reinforcing the view that reduced visibility is impacting engagement.
Blinkit, in particular, appears to be in expansion mode. After bottoming out in the first quarter of this financial year, its marketing spend has grown consistently quarter after quarter.
JPMorgan expects third quarter spending to surpass the previous peak seen in the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal, signalling a clear focus on attracting new users in newly launched store areas. The brokerage anticipates that improvements in daily and weekly active user metrics will begin to show over the coming quarters.
