Evaluating PM Strategy: Zepto's Next Move
Zepto, is facing fierce competition from Blinkit. The Product team is deliberating on the best strategy to gain a competitive edge.
Which strategy should Zepto prioritise to outmaneuver Blinkit?
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Among the following strategies, only gamification makes sense, because most drivers work across multiple apps (zomato, swiggy, blinkit, Zepto, Dunzo if they exist anymore), by gamification Iâm only increasing my retention and share of driverâs daily trips. Since this is a zero sum game, more the drivers stick to doing my orders, less drivers are available for the completion. The tangible difference in SLA adherence becomes my key differentiator
- Dynamic pricing will not be implementable on most SKUs and they have MRP on them, so the only way we can deploy âdynamic pricingâ is by influencing delivery/fulfilment costs or discounts, none of which can provide significant top line boost without affecting product retention
2.agreesive merchant acquisition: 3 key questions to answer here
(a) what category are these exclusive merchants in
(B) how much demand we have for them on the platform (easily gaugable from search/consumption patterns)
(C) how much will we need to incentivise to being these brands away from blinkit
Itâs fair to assume that Zepto has reach in all daily use/commodity SKUs, which form the bulk of orders on platform. Any addition will not impact most orders (therefore, limited top line impact) without spending significant acquisition costs.
- Selling data : 2 questions to think of here - (A) who will buy this data and for how much? (B) what will they do with it and can I hurt my business?
The only people who I can think can monetise this data are online ad targeting firms and D2C brands, and none of them can pay a lot for data. And afaik, Zepto does not have a fully fledged advertisement business baked in the app yet, not sure if Iâm gonna make it a feature in future and to what degree I want brands to access targeting data
Curious, a recent customer of Zepto. I saw some gamification features already? Or have I missed the features altogether?
Itâs more about driver/delivery person gamification, however gamification for the buyer side will also make sense as it is also a zero sum game (people jump from one app to another)
Any quick commerce can only win on 3 things (product) -
- Operational efficiency- delivering to the customer in the fastest time possible
- Product assortment - having the required products available to the customer at all times
- Pricing- lowest price always wins since there is little differentiation in consumer goods
I have could never comprehend how quick commerce model could work successfully but Blinkit has surprised me. Iâm still not sure if theyâll ever be able to scale as much as Zomato/swiggy. I think that TAM is limited, and itâll only be a wallet share game once the penetration plateaus
Can you elaborate on limited TAM?
NOTA
Category expansion all the way through
Agreed, there are still categories left to be established in quick commerce. And instead of oversimplifying the problem statement by using course work strategies of gamification and surge pricing they should focus on building a customer pull
None of the above.
Diversification can be way to go. Bring new categories like pharmacy. I know there are legal and compliance challenges but nothing as such which canât be sorted.
Route optimisation to group orders (I know Swiggy is doing this) can increase AOV per trip
Honestly speaking I don't have the answer but if I knew it I'd rather be paid as FTE to give it to them.
The question is incomplete. Competitive edge in what sense? Outmanouvere on what metrics? User acquisition? Revenue increase? Margin increase? Depending on the answer to this different options will emerge
This question is so dumb without data and context of the existing business. What are their current strengths? What has highest retention? Can only answer when you have these data points.