Online food and quick commerce platforms experienced a significant surge in orders during the Men's T20 World Cup final, driven by special promotions and dedicated "match corners" for snacks, beverages, and team merchandise. BigBasket reported a 60% order increase, while Flipkart Minutes noted a 12% growth, with both platforms enhancing operations to meet demand.
Food delivery also saw increased activity, with some restaurants and cloud kitchens reporting order spikes of 30-40% during the match, though others cited challenges like rider shortages. The event coincided with International Women's Day, which provided an additional occasion-led sales boost for quick commerce apps.
The main topics covered are the surge in orders for quick commerce and food delivery during the cricket final, the specific marketing strategies and offers deployed by platforms, the operational adjustments made to handle demand, and the mixed performance reports from different restaurants and kitchens.
Online food and quick commerce platforms saw a surge in orders during the Menâs T20 World Cup final match Sunday, as fans remained glued to the screens as India decimated New Zealand.
Quick commerce apps had started pushing for match-related items and party essentials days before the final. Food delivery platforms also nudged users with offers.
Zomato started a three-day weekend offer for the match beginning on Friday, while Swiggy launched a 'Rs 75 cash back' offer and 'predict and win' games for Sunday. Quick commerce apps like Zepto, Amazon Now, Blinkit, Instamart, BigBasket and Flipkart Minutes ramped up with match corners featuring Team India jerseys, snacks, beverages, party essentials and more.
Tata-owned BigBasket saw a 60% increase in orders compared with business-as-usual (BAU) as of 9 pm Sunday.
âIn the lead up to the game, we have observed close to a 10% surge in orders across match essentials such as jerseys, menâs t-shirts, sneakers and caps, as customers settled in to catch the action across key metro cities and beyond, including Ahmedabad, Agra, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Durgapur, Hyderabad, Nashik, Jamshedpur and Ranchi,â a spokesperson at Flipkart Minutes said in response to ETâs query.
This comes as the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad was coloured in blue, while the match drew around 665 million concurrent views online during the second innings, with a comparable number tuning in through television broadcast.
Flipkart Minutes noted that it strengthened its last-mile fleet capacity and optimised store operations across key catchments ahead of peak match hours. The platform saw close to 12% growth amid an action-packed first innings.
Notably, March 8 is also International Womenâs Day, which acted as another occasion-led buying event for quick commerce apps which coincided with the weekend adding to the surge in orders. Instamart and Blinkit had their pink theme throughout the day, pushing flowers, chocolates and jewellery for Womenâs Day. Hours before the match started at 7 pm, these app interfaces turned blue, representing Team Indiaâs jersey colour.
Eternal, Swiggy, Zepto and Amazon Now did not respond to ETâs queries as of press time.
Mixed reviews on food delivery
Food delivery orders also picked up on match day for some restaurants and cloud kitchens, but others were not impressed with the early demand amid a rider shortage.
âWhile demand has been low this week, we saw an uptick on Sunday. However, there is a major rider shortage for us due to Ramzan and many gig workers have not returned from Holi,â said Gagandeep Singh Sapra, cofounder of cloud kitchen Tadka Rani, which primarily operates in the Delhi-NCR region.
But many restaurants and cloud kitchens saw demand picking up from 6 pm across cities Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad.
"The largest surge usually happens once the match begins and peaks around the innings break. Depending on the market and how engaging the game is, weâve seen orders go up by 30-40% versus BAU during that window," said Yash Madhani, head of growth at cloud kitchen firm Rebel Foods.
Dhruv Kohli, founder of QSR chain Boba Bhai, said based on early trends the firm saw a 20% increase this Sunday compared with the previous Sunday when India played against West Indies. âMost sold items were our Korean chicken burgers, Korean fried chicken and Taro Lava Bubble Tea.â
To attract more users to the platform, Zomato and Swiggy were running offers with select restaurants for the T20 finals. To tap into the demand for snacks and quick bites, Blinkitâs Bistro and 10-minute food delivery platform Swish were running special offers for match day and house parties.
Besides quick commerce, these event-led marketing and offers are increasingly becoming common for food delivery too.
Quick commerce apps had started pushing for match-related items and party essentials days before the final. Food delivery platforms also nudged users with offers.
Zomato started a three-day weekend offer for the match beginning on Friday, while Swiggy launched a 'Rs 75 cash back' offer and 'predict and win' games for Sunday. Quick commerce apps like Zepto, Amazon Now, Blinkit, Instamart, BigBasket and Flipkart Minutes ramped up with match corners featuring Team India jerseys, snacks, beverages, party essentials and more.
Tata-owned BigBasket saw a 60% increase in orders compared with business-as-usual (BAU) as of 9 pm Sunday.
âIn the lead up to the game, we have observed close to a 10% surge in orders across match essentials such as jerseys, menâs t-shirts, sneakers and caps, as customers settled in to catch the action across key metro cities and beyond, including Ahmedabad, Agra, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Durgapur, Hyderabad, Nashik, Jamshedpur and Ranchi,â a spokesperson at Flipkart Minutes said in response to ETâs query.
This comes as the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad was coloured in blue, while the match drew around 665 million concurrent views online during the second innings, with a comparable number tuning in through television broadcast.
Flipkart Minutes noted that it strengthened its last-mile fleet capacity and optimised store operations across key catchments ahead of peak match hours. The platform saw close to 12% growth amid an action-packed first innings.
Notably, March 8 is also International Womenâs Day, which acted as another occasion-led buying event for quick commerce apps which coincided with the weekend adding to the surge in orders. Instamart and Blinkit had their pink theme throughout the day, pushing flowers, chocolates and jewellery for Womenâs Day. Hours before the match started at 7 pm, these app interfaces turned blue, representing Team Indiaâs jersey colour.
Eternal, Swiggy, Zepto and Amazon Now did not respond to ETâs queries as of press time.
Mixed reviews on food delivery
Food delivery orders also picked up on match day for some restaurants and cloud kitchens, but others were not impressed with the early demand amid a rider shortage.
âWhile demand has been low this week, we saw an uptick on Sunday. However, there is a major rider shortage for us due to Ramzan and many gig workers have not returned from Holi,â said Gagandeep Singh Sapra, cofounder of cloud kitchen Tadka Rani, which primarily operates in the Delhi-NCR region.
But many restaurants and cloud kitchens saw demand picking up from 6 pm across cities Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad.
"The largest surge usually happens once the match begins and peaks around the innings break. Depending on the market and how engaging the game is, weâve seen orders go up by 30-40% versus BAU during that window," said Yash Madhani, head of growth at cloud kitchen firm Rebel Foods.
Dhruv Kohli, founder of QSR chain Boba Bhai, said based on early trends the firm saw a 20% increase this Sunday compared with the previous Sunday when India played against West Indies. âMost sold items were our Korean chicken burgers, Korean fried chicken and Taro Lava Bubble Tea.â
To attract more users to the platform, Zomato and Swiggy were running offers with select restaurants for the T20 finals. To tap into the demand for snacks and quick bites, Blinkitâs Bistro and 10-minute food delivery platform Swish were running special offers for match day and house parties.
Besides quick commerce, these event-led marketing and offers are increasingly becoming common for food delivery too.
Meridiano
