Consumers drive quick commerce, food delivery sales on New Year's Eve

Quick commerce and food delivery platforms saw an uptick in New Year's Eve demand, with grapes searches surging on Instamart and purchases spiking on Zepto

Consumers increasingly turned to quick commerce (qcom) and food delivery platforms on New Year’s Eve (December 31), with sales volumes seeing a noticeable uptick as demand rose ahead of the celebrations despite the gig workers’ strike.

 

Swiggy Cofounder Phani Kishan Addepalli said the search for grapes spiked throughout the day. “Today, Instamart saw 235,000 searches for grapes in the first half of the day, with searches starting as early as 5 am.” In all, the searches for grapes on Instamart rose 78 times compared to usual days.

 

Not just on Instamart, Zepto also witnessed a sharp spike in grape purchases. The grapes were one of the top searched items as consumers followed a global ritual of eating 12 grapes at midnight, symbolising luck for each month of the year.

 

While Instamart had waived delivery, handling, and surge fees on orders above ₹199, Zepto removed all fees on orders exceeding ₹149.

 

On overall trends on qcom, Amitesh Jha, chief executive officer of Instamart, said that categories such as party supplies, gifting essentials, snacks and beverages, beauty, personal care, and grooming, and  grapes saw high growth on the platform.