Raksha Bandhan rush: Quick commerce platforms face demand overload

As online shoppers flocked to quick commerce platforms for Raksha Bandhan essentials, sales spiked but delivery delays, out-of-stock items, and store unavailability increased for Swiggy Instamart, Bli

Quick commerce (qcom) platforms set new Raksha Bandhan sales records this year as online shoppers increasingly turned to doorstep delivery for festival essentials — from rakhis to sweets.

 

But the demand surge also meant longer delivery times, out-of-stock items, and store unavailability across Swiggy Instamart, Blinkit, Zepto, and others.

 

Swiggy Instamart, which partnered with Kalyan Jewellers to offer ₹2,100 voucher cards on orders above ₹499, saw vouchers run out at some locations.

 

In some cases, the benefit was not automatically applied to eligible carts, prompting Instamart to later add a condition that a rakhi be included in the order.

 

Agam Gupta, a Noida-based user, said even after placing a high-value order worth ₹1,950, the voucher was not automatically added to his cart.

 

“It was surprising to see that the voucher was not included even after trying several times and adding items in different permutations and combinations. So, I planned to place the order the next day. This time, I read on the application that to get the voucher, one must now add a rakhi. I did it and got the voucher at Gurugram, where my sister lives, but not in my original Noida location. In fact, a few times the store was only unavailable,” he said. 

 

A Gurugram-based user who didn't wish to be named said he tried placing an order on Instamart, but surprisingly, the store was unavailable in Sector 47. 

 

“I tried the Instamart app first because its dark store is quite near and the orders usually arrive in 15 minutes or less. But this time, the store was unavailable when I wanted to make last-minute purchases, like some additional sweets for my more-than-expected guests. So, I went to try Blinkit, but its store was also unavailable,” he said.

 

Similarly Chetna, a Delhi-based user who switches between Blinkit and Zepto, said she struggled placing orders on both these platforms. “I ordered on Blinkit, and the delivery time was somewhere near 37 minutes, which is more than what I usually see. Right after I placed an order, my mother asked me to order some more items. This time, seeing the long delivery period of Blinkit, I ordered via Zepto. But again, both the orders finally reached after 35-40 minutes only," Chetna added. 

 

Another customer on social media posted that every time she placed an order on Zepto in the last two days, she saw a surge fee added to her cart. Despite these glitches, sales spiked.

 

Swiggy Instamart witnessed a 3.5 times rise in orders over last year, along with a 1.5 times increase in average order value on rakhi day compared to the previous year. 

 

“In the week leading up to the festival, we touched a peak of one lakh rakhis sold per hour. On rakhi day itself, the single busiest moment came at 10:21 am, with 1,200 rakhis sold per minute,” the company said in a statement. 

 

Along with Rakhi’s, sales of hampers were up eight times year-on-year (Y-o-Y), while sweets and chocolates surged eight and fourfold compared to regular days.

 

Similar to Swiggy Instamart, Zepto also recorded a rise in sales. In a post on social networking platform LinkedIn, Zepto's chief executive officer (CEO) Aadit Palicha said sales peaked at 10–11 am on rakhi day, when the company sold nearly 820 rakhis per minute, up 150 per cent from last year.

 

According to the company, sales of earrings rose 4.5 times compared to last year, wallets and handbags saw a seven times growth, sweets grew four times, and lifafas (envelopes) were up two times.

 

 

On sales numbers, Seshu Kumar Tirumala, chief buying and merchandising officer of BigBasket said, “We saw a 2.1 times jump in rakhi sales compared to last year. The number of rakhis we sold by noon on August 9 was equal to what we sold over two full days last year. We added several new rakhi brands and also launched multiple rakhis under our own label, which grew 2.9 times over last year.”

 

Companies said the trend shows that consumers are using quick commerce not just for last-minute festive needs but also for planned purchases.

 

“Demand began building days before the festival,” said Deepinder Singh Binner, associate vice-president (VP) at Instamart.

 

He added, “This shows consumers are planning their festival purchases with us in advance.”

 

Palicha added that festival shopping, once done in stores a week ahead, is now increasingly shifting online.