Summary: Zepto, the quick-commerce unicorn, has introduced a 10-minute exchange and return service for select product categories, enhancing its customer experience. This service is available for most items, excluding categories like innerwear, gold, accessories, and certain utility products due to health and safety concerns. The company offers refunds via coupons or vouchers for cash on delivery (COD) orders, with immediate processing for returns.
This move comes as Zepto faces growing competition from rivals like Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart. Additionally, the company is preparing for its IPO, planning to raise $1 billion, up from the initially planned $800 million. Zepto’s revenue more than doubled to INR 4,454.52 crore in FY24, while its losses decreased by 2%, reflecting its continued growth in the quick-commerce sector.
Quick-commerce unicorn Zepto has launched an innovative 10-minute exchange and return service for select product categories, enhancing its customer experience. The company recently announced this new offering via a LinkedIn post, allowing customers to return or exchange their Zepto orders within a mere 10-minute window.
The new service is applicable across most of Zepto’s product categories, with certain exceptions due to health, safety, and regulatory reasons. Categories such as innerwear, gold and silver coins, accessories like socks, religious items like dhoop, diya, pooja cloth, as well as utility products like water filters and disposables, are not eligible for returns or exchanges.
Zepto emphasizes that customers can inspect their orders upon delivery and, if necessary, initiate returns or exchanges using the platform, with the necessary proof. For cash on delivery (COD) orders, the company offers refunds in the form of coupons or vouchers, equivalent to the refund amount.
Once the return is validated, Zepto initi initiates theates refund immediately, although the processing time for the refund in the customer’s account may vary depending on the bank. For COD orders, the refund will be credited in the form of a voucher or coupon.
Zepto’s new service puts it in direct competition with rivals in the quick-commerce space. Blinkit, another quick-commerce player, rolled out a return option last year for certain categories, such as clothing and footwear, in cities like Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune.
This move by Zepto comes as the company faces mounting competition, with new entrants like Flipkart Minutes offering free deliveries and established players like Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart wooing customers through discounts and an extensive product portfolio. To stay ahead, Zepto is intensifying its customer offerings, including the 10-minute return/exchange service.
Zepto’s expansion efforts are also focused on its upcoming Initial Public Offering (IPO). Recently, the company announced that it has shifted its domicile to India from Singapore and is looking to increase the size of its IPO from the previously planned $800 million to $1 billion. The company, led by founder Aadit Palicha, is expected to file its draft IPO papers with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) by March or April of 2025.
On the financial front, Zepto has shown impressive growth. The company’s operating revenue more than doubled, reaching INR 4,454.52 crore in the fiscal year 2023-24 (FY24) compared to INR 2,025.70 crore in the previous fiscal year. This growth was fueled by the rising popularity of quick commerce. Zepto also managed to reduce its losses slightly, with a 2% decrease in losses to INR 1,248.64 crore in FY24 from INR 1,271.84 crore in FY23.
With these new initiatives, Zepto continues to strengthen its position in the highly competitive quick-commerce market, paving the way for further growth as it prepares for its upcoming IPO.
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