Advertising boosts Swiggy’s Instamart take rate, expected to reach 20-22% soon

Swiggy Instamart’s take rate includes fees for platform and enablement services to the merchant partner, advertising revenue from brand partners, and fees charged from users which include delivery fees, convenience, and other charges

By
  • Mansi Jaswal,
| December 4, 2024 , 8:26 am
Swiggy Instamart has 609 dark stores as of September 2024
Swiggy Instamart has 609 dark stores as of September 2024

Food delivery platform Swiggy disclosed its second quarter (Q2) result for fiscal year 2025 on the stock exchanges on Tuesday. The company declared its results for the first time since it went public last month.

The platform’s quick commerce vertical, Swiggy Instmart, has witnessed a steady rise in its take rate as per the data.

According to the official statement by the company, the quick commerce take-rate by Instamart (Adjusted Revenue/Gross Order Value, GOV) and contribution margin have risen consistently over the years.

Swiggy Instamart’s take rate has increased from 12.2 percent in Q1 FY24 to 15.2 percent in Q2 FY 25. The contribution margin has narrowed to -1.9 percent in Q2 FY 25 from -7.5 percent in Q1 FY 24.

Swiggy supercharges ad spend, scaling up 13.2% to Rs 605.3 crore in Q2 FY25

Instamart’s take rate includes fees for platform and enablement services to the merchant partner, advertising revenue from brand partners, and fees charged from users which include delivery fees, convenience, and other charges.

Notably, Swiggy has attributed “advertising” to the rise in the take-rate of its quick commerce platform.

“Growth in advertising has been a key driver for take-rate expansion, as brands and our platform. Increasingly attractive to reach out to consumers,” according to Swiggy Ltd.

The platform has expected steady-state take-rates and contribution margins to expand to 20-22 percent and 8-9 percent respectively, delivering a 4-5 percent Adjusted EBITDA margin in the coming quarters.

Swiggy’s 10-minute delivery service ‘Bolt’ expands to 400+ cities

Currently, Instamart is available in 54 cities in India. The platform has 609 dark stores as of September 2024. Swiggy Ltd said it will increase the size of the store count by 30-35 percent by March 2025.

“We expect to more than double our active dark store area to 4 million sq ft by March 25 (versus 1.5 million sq ft on March 24), through a combination of new store additions and larger sized stores,” Swiggy said in a BSE filing.

Instamart’s adjusted revenue has increased by 27.2 percent to Rs 513 crore in Q2 on a quarter-on-quarter basis. On the other hand, rival Blinkit, owned by Zomato, recorded adjusted revenue of Rs 1,156 crore crore in Q2 FY 25.

The Gross Order Value of Swiggy Instamart stands at Rs 3,382 crore as of Q2 FY 25 compared to Blinkit at Rs 6,132 crore in the same period.

According to Karan Taurani, Senior VP at Elara Securities, Instamart’s take rates rose 76 bps Q0Q to 14.5 percent and the Average Order Value (AOV) inched up 2.5 percent QoQ to Rs 499. Instamart’s take rates were 440bps lower than Blinkit’s 18.9 percent in Q2FY25. Whereas, the AOV at Rs 499 was 24 percent lower than Blinkit’s Rs 660 in Q2FY25″.

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