Quick Commerce Battle: Blinkit, Instamart Gain Market Share In Q1

Quick commerce majors Blinkit and Instamart gained market share in the first quarter of the ongoing financial year (Q1 FY26) as players in the sector decided to slow down their aggressive expansion plans, a report by ICICI Securities said.

The report said that Eternal’s Blinkit saw its gross order value grow over 25% sequentially, while Swiggy’s Instamart witnessed a 22% QoQ growth in Q1 FY26.

The brokerage said that the growth for the quick commerce sector was below 20% in Q1 FY26, implying that both Blinkit and Instamart gained market share.

This would also mean that Zepto likely lost market share during the June quarter. Notably, Zepto was said to be looking to reduce its cash burn and turn profitable as it gears up for its IPO. This also resulted in the company deferring its public listing plans to 2026 from 2025 earlier.

However, Zepto cofounder and CEO Aadit Palicha said last month that the decision to defer the filing of draft papers was taken as the company wants to increase domestic ownership. Palicha said that Zepto was close to achieving EBITDA breakeven.

Focus Turns To Profitability

The aggressive expansion spree undertaken by the three leading players in the quick commerce sector saw their profitability taking a hit over the last few quarters. While the financial numbers for Zepto are not out, Eternal and Swiggy saw their expenses surge over the past few quarters.

While Eternal saw its consolidated net profit crash nearly 78% YoY to INR 39 Cr in Q4 FY25, Swiggy’s net loss surged 95% to INR 1,081.2 Cr.

However, the companies are now turning their focus towards profitability following the expansion push. ICICI Securities said its channel checks indicate that price discounting steadily decreased across platforms in Q1 and performance marketing spends also remained comparatively muted.

Besides, store expansion slowed down in the June quarter compared to the preceding quarter ended March 31, 2025.

The brokerage expects Blinkit’s GOV to grow 140.3% YoY in Q1, while Instamart is estimated to see a 110.1% increase in GOV. It sees Blinkit posting an adjusted EBITDA loss of INR 150 Cr during the quarter as against an adjusted EBITDA loss of INR 178 Cr in Q4 FY25.

Meanwhile, Instamart is projected to post an adjusted EBITDA loss of INR 910 Cr in Q1 FY26 as against a loss of INR 840 Cr in Q4 2025.

Swiggy Gains Market Share In Food Delivery

Interestingly, ICICI Securities said Swiggy is likely to have gained marginal market share in the food delivery business. Since the food delivery market is largely a duopoly, this would imply that Eternal’s Zomato would see a corresponding decline in its share in the market.

It is pertinent to note that food delivery business of both the companies has relatively slowed down over the past year, with quick commerce emerging as the major growth driver. Swiggy’s food delivery revenue grew 18% YoY to INR 1,629.3 Cr in Q4 FY25, while Zomato’s revenue too rose 18% YoY to INR 2,054 Cr.

In its Q4 shareholder letter, Eternal CEO Deepinder Goyal said that the growth of food delivery continued to remain below the company’s expectations.

Zomato and Swiggy have also taken different approaches for their food delivery verticals. While Zomato shut its 15-minute food delivery service ‘Quick’ citing lack of “incrementality in demand”, Swiggy has doubled down on its quick food delivery service ‘Bolt’. The company said Bolt, which is available in more than 500 cities now, accounted for 12% of its food delivery orders in Q4.

For Q1 FY26, ICICI Securities expects Zomato’s GOV to rise 17% YoY and 10.8% QoQ. For Swiggy’s food delivery business, it sees GOV growing 18.5% YoY and 9.8% QoQ.

Overall, it projected Eternal’s net profit to decline 89.1% YoY to INR 27.7 Cr in the June quarter and Swiggy’s loss to decline 76% YoY to INR 1,060 Cr. The brokerage said it remains bullish on Swiggy.

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