Raksha Bandhan Quick Commerce Boom: Blinkit, Zepto, Instamart Hit Record Sales

New Delhi, Aug 19 (PTI) Quick commerce platforms had a field day on the occasion of Rakshabandhan as the nation ditched exhaustive post-office shopping for quick hassle-free deliveries.

Blinkit, which holds about 40 per cent share of the quick commerce market, sold about 700 rakhis every minute.

"We'll cross all-time high orders in a day on blinkit in a couple of minutes. We also hit highest ever OPM (orders per minute), GMV, chocolate sales and most other metrics today! And at its peak - we hit 693 RPM (Rakhis per minute)," Blinkit CEO and co-founder Albinder Dhindsa wrote on X.

Zomato-owned Blinkit on Saturday announced it will take international orders on Blinkit till August 19.

"Folks living abroad can now place orders on Blinkit to send Rakhis and gifts to their siblings in India and we'll deliver in 10 minutes! Countries from where you can order -- USA, Canada, Netherlands, Germany, France and Japan," Dhindsa announced.

Zepto, which raised USD 665 million (about Rs 5,560 crore) in its latest funding round in June that valued the firm at USD 3.6 billion, also reported hike in sales for festive merchandise.

The Mumbai-based firm introduced 'Lifafas' for the festival, a free add-on in Zepto orders, with "5 crores worry of prizes".

"We just crossed 1 Million Lifafas - what a crazy way to end a Sunday night! All-time high on orders, sales, and first-time buyers as well. The team and I couldn't be more grateful to our customers," Zepto CEO and Co-Founder Aadit Palicha wrote on LinkedIn.

Food-delivery platform Swiggy's quick commerce arm Instamart also joined in the celebrations as it more than doubled its Rakhi sales against last year.

"Celebrations of Raksha Bandhan fully underway - clocking higher orders per minute (OPM) than our peak day, which was a historical high in itself Expecting to sell as many rakhis *today* as we did *till today* this year (and that's already 5x of last year!)," Instamart head Phani Kishangarh A, shared on X.

The platform witnessed a massive 646 per cent spike in perfume orders on RakshaBandhan, making it the most popular Rakhi gift after chocolates, he added.

"The last few months have been crazy for us @SwiggyInstamart with business growing faster this year than last year at a much higher scale. Every weekend has been a new historical high scaling highest orders, business and user acquisition.

But the real joy is that today we get to be an integral part of the lives of millions of customers as they celebrate Raksha Bandhan - a unique to India ritual that pays homage to the bonds of siblings. No number can top this high :)" he further wrote.