Blinkit: Blinkit rolls out Seller Hub for easier onboarding of brands, sellers

Zomato-owned quick commerce platform Blinkit on Wednesday launched its seller programme called Seller Hub on the lines of ecommerce giant Amazon’s FBA (fulfilled by Amazon), the company’s chief technology officer Sajal Gupta said in a LinkedIn post.

The Blinkit Seller Hub will help brands and sellers onboard the quick commerce platform without the need to interface with an intermediary, and offers services such as inventory tracking, dark store-wise availability, catalogue and pricing management, and advertising, among others.

As quick commerce platforms including Blinkit, and its rivals Swiggy Instamart and Zepto, started witnessing high user growth and order frequencies, brands across spaces such as beauty and personal care, health and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), began coughing up hefty commissions and advertising spends to enhance their visibility.

In April, ET had reported that the listing process itself is months long for most small brands and often results in failures, while personal referrals are becoming increasingly essential to break through the crowd, citing more than half a dozen direct-to-consumer (D2C) startup founders across segments.

“We want to create a seller program in quick commerce which is significantly better than any other and our benchmark has always been … FBA,” Gupta wrote in his post.

“To that end, we have launched Blinkit Seller Hub to make selling via Blinkit completely self-serve for brands, without a need to interface with any intermediary or with us,” he said, adding that over 200 brands have already been boarded on the Seller Hub with more expected to join.

In the July-September quarter, Blinkit delivered 92.9 million orders, recording a gross order value (GOV) of more than Rs 6,000 crore. The company is currently present in more than 40 markets – but almost 40% of the Gurugram-based company’s business comes from its home market of Delhi-NCR.

As of September 30, it had 791 dark stores, or micro warehouses from where it makes 10-minute deliveries. It plans to operate 1,000 dark stores by the end of FY25 and 2,000 by December 2026.

Advertising has also emerged as a significant revenue generator for consumer internet platforms including quick commerce companies, particularly those with high daily and monthly active users.