Quick commerce unicorn Zepto has rolled out a subscription-based analytics tool for consumer brands on its platform, aiming to boost profitability and move beyond its core delivery business. This move marks a significant step in Zepto’s broader monetisation strategy.
Called Zepto Atom, the platform offers granular data insights to brands on customer behaviour, market share, conversions, and hyperlocal trends. It’s an upgraded version of Zepto’s existing brand portal and will be available as a paid add-on for performance tracking.
Among the key features on offer are Pincode-level market share data and brand performance that will allow brands to optimise hyperlocal pricing and promotional strategies, live tracking of customer impressions, conversions, and sales metrics refreshed every minute, and Zepto GPT, a proprietary AI assistant trained on company data to generate real-time insights and strategic recommendations, Zepto co-founder and CEO Aadit Palicha said in a LinkedIn post.
Brands can better manage inventory by understanding what sells where, and reducing stock-outs, overstocking, and supply chain inefficiencies, noted Abhishek Maiti, director — Industrial Goods and Services at market intelligence firm 1Lattice. He added that companies can also gain sharper visibility into consumer behaviour at the neighbourhood level, tailoring offerings and price points to match local demand, and can optimise their marketing spend, focusing budgets where they see the highest return.
The launch comes at a time when investor focus is firmly shifting to profitability in the Q-commerce space, where players like Zepto and Swiggy Instamart are yet to break even. According to FY24 company filings, Zepto’s losses narrowed marginally but still stand at Rs 1,248 crore. Meanwhile, for both Swiggy Instamart and Zomato’s Blinkit, increased growth investments in dark store expansion and user acquisition widened losses in Q4 on a sequential basis.
Losses in quick commerce continued to widen last quarter due to increased discounting, marketing spends, and rapid store expansion, according to a research note by BofA Securities on Wednesday. While net order value (NOV) offers a clearer picture of growth, analysts caution that competition remains intense and profitability improvements are unlikely in the near term.
With a planned IPO on the horizon, the Atom product adds a new revenue lever to Zepto’s business model. The company claims it will help marketers understand product performance at a granular level and make campaign adjustments in real time.
Maiti further said that several challenges could limit their adoption and utility. For one, the data is confined to the platform’s own ecosystem, offering no visibility into a brand’s performance across other quick commerce or retail channels. For smaller or less mature brands, the volume and complexity of minute-by-minute, pin-code-level data can be overwhelming, especially without established data systems.
“With such platforms being a subscription-based service, smaller brands with limited budgets may find the recurring costs a costly affair,” he told FE.
Zepto, much like Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart, is increasingly turning to advertising revenues as a meaningful revenue stream. Quick commerce platforms are now generating an estimated Rs 3,000-3,500 crore in annual recurring revenue (ARR) from advertisements, according to brokerage Elara Securities.
Analysts say such ad sales could become meaningful contributors to gross margins over time, provided adoption scales. Zepto said it will onboard brand partners onto Zepto Atom starting this week, beginning with a webinar scheduled for Friday.