Intro to the company

• A startup based out of Mumbai, founded by two 19 year olds named Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra in 2020 offers a 10 minute delivery service for essentials including groceries as well. As of 2021 delivering 3500+ products across 11+ cities with a median delivery time of 8 mins 47 seconds which is unbeatable by any of its existing competitors including Swiggy, Amazon Fresh, Big Basket…

Tech deployed

• LOCUS.AI - An AI based software used by the company to detect customer’s geostatical data, road patterns, traffic dynamics and the time invested in the last mile delivery. LOCUS.AI uses Google’s APIs to process all these data and display it at the dashboard of the manager present at the warehouse ready to dispatch the order.
• DARK STORE MODEL - These are the mini warehouses focused on maintaining an inventory of limited most frequently ordered items instead of traditional well stacked large format warehouses.

Setting up a Dark Store ➖

1. Analyzing buying pattern of the consumers in the area
2. determining the purchasing frequency of the consumers
3. A bit of location engineering like analyzing traffic patterns, finding out the average lead time etc.

If all the three purposes are met, within no time the company sets up a Dark Store in that area, which is set up every 4-5 kms radius.

• AI usage in dispatching orders - As soon as on order placed is detected by the app it displays at manager’s dashboard at Dark store. With the help of AI based software within seconds he/she finds out the exact position of the product and sends a message to the nearest delivery partner.

MVP (Minimum Viable product)

• The same set of founders started with a company called ‘Kirana Kart’ with the same vision of delivering daily usage items to its customers. Running that company, they came to the conclusion that the orders which are being delivered within 45 min-1 hr. of timespan, acquire a repeat customer rate of 15-20%, whereas those being delivered within 25-30 mins owns repeat customer rate of 40-50%.
• This was their first and last step towards market testing. They shut down Kirana Kart and started with a fresh start ZEPTO. They employed all those techniques their earlier startup missed out. Here came out the idea of starting a 10 min delivery service in India.

Differentiator

• Customer Acquisition Technique - Unlike its other competitors who consistently tend toward burning cash to give out heavy discounts and offers to acquire more customers, Zepto aims towards handing over the product to its consumers within minimum time possible. Groceries are something that a customer order when needed, so he/she would definitely prefer the company which is delivering faster as compared to that which is offering discounts but delivery span is quite high.
• Synchronized process of Picking, Packing and Bagging - From the very initial process of receiving orders, locating the product, handing it over to the delivery partner, all these are completed within 60 seconds. So still the delivery agent holds 9 mins in hand to get the product to its destination which is actually not more than 3-4 kms away due to the Dark store model adopted by them.