Zepto is preparing to launch Select, a premium in-app service offering curated imported and premium grocery products, following a pilot in a few locations, sources said.
The company has begun onboarding premium brands and is expected to roll out the service in the coming weeks, ahead of its initial public offering (IPO).
The launch will make Zepto the last of India’s three largest quick-commerce platforms to open a dedicated premium storefront, as the sector turns to higher-value goods to lift order values that have flattened in its biggest markets.
Eternal-owned Blinkit began piloting a premium offering called Gourmet last week in select pincodes of Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai, selling artisanal cheeses and breads, as well as ozone-washed fruits and vegetables.
Gourmet runs on a separate network of about five dedicated dark stores — two each in Delhi and Bengaluru, and one in Mumbai — built exclusively to stock premium products.
Separately, it also offers a dedicated Imported Store within its main app, housing imported and premium-branded products. Swiggy’s Instamart was the earliest mover in the segment. It launched Handpicked in December 2022 as an invite-only, next-day service in Bengaluru, stocking imported and hard-to-find local products, before discontinuing it in mid-2023.
By early 2024, InsanelyGood, its premium grocery vertical and the rebranded avatar of SuprDaily, which Swiggy acquired in 2018, was merged into Instamart as Handpicked.Instamart has since built the widest premium architecture of the three.
It carries a dedicated Gourmet category that houses imported branded products alongside exotic fruits and vegetables sold under Nectr, its private label. Its other private label, NOICE, launched in mid-2025, now spans more than 400 products across over 25 categories. Sitting on top of it all is Upgrade, a badge that flags a higher-quality alternative to a regular product across the app.
All of this runs off Instamart’s existing dark-store network.
The head start has reflected in basket size. Instamart lifted its average order value to Rs 700 in Q4FY26 from Rs 527 a year earlier. The others have stalled. Blinkit’s net average order value was Rs 525 in the fourth quarter of FY26, against Rs 520 a year earlier, even as its average monthly transacting customers nearly doubled to 27.2 million from 13.7 million.
Zepto has the smallest basket size at Rs 387, according to its IPO filings.The platforms are entering a segment where smaller startups have attracted significant investor interest and customer traction. Bengaluru-based FirstClub raised $55 million in June in a round led by Peak XV Partners and Sofina at a valuation of about $255 million, taking its total funding to roughly $86 million.
It claims to have an average order value of about Rs 1,200, more than twice that of the large platforms. FirstClub, Origin Fresh, Handpickd, Pluckk, Freshly and LoveLocal have collectively raised more than $130 million.The push also comes as geographic headroom is thinning at the top.
Metro dark-store penetration has crossed 106% of addressable potential, with metro pincodes 99% covered, according to a Bernstein analysis. Tier-II penetration stands at 48% and Tier-III at 22% — markets where order densities are lower and baskets skew towards value purchases.With little room to add coverage where the money is, platforms are adding depth instead.
Blinkit stocks close to 80,000 SKUs in Delhi-NCR, compared with 50,000 in the next seven cities and 20,000 beyond. Group chief executive Albinder Dhindsa told shareholders that broader selection drives retention, wallet share and order value, and would be the primary driver of store additions in the top eight cities going forward.
