New Year’s Eve 2023 was eventful for India’s food delivery platforms as the gross orders made during the day was a record number of 6.5 million, 18% higher in comparison to last year’s orders which stood at 5.5 million, according to a report by Redseer.
The report showed that the spike in food delivery orders on NYE23 was a nationwide phenomenon as Metros, Tier-1 cities and rest of Indian cities exhibited almost similar growth in order volumes on this day.
GMV in breakfast (orders placed between 6am to 11am) was about twice the daily average of the year. GMV peaked in the dinner and late-night orders, being up to three times the average of other days.
Customers not only ordered higher volumes, but they also spent more per order. Redseer estimates that the average order value was up to 30% higher than that of other days of the year.
The report added that customers across city tiers showed their appreciation for early delivery, impressive discounts, good quality food and customised (for the day) packaging despite every hour of the day being a peak hour of sorts.
“Spike days like the IPL,
Cricket World Cups, Diwali, NYE etc. are critical for online food delivery services as customers order more and spend more. It is also important for the brands and platforms to be able to serve the increased load on these days as customer experience cannot be hampered on these celebratory occasions. It was heartening to see the jubilation in the ecosystem on NYE23 with a record number of orders being delivered, while customers reported high satisfaction with the services. More importantly, the fact that the momentum was seen across India and across city tiers was testament to the size of the opportunity in India,” said Abhijit Routray, Associate Partner at Redseer.
Apart from food delivery companies, quick-commerce and other consumer internet startups also experienced record high orders on New Year's Eve.
Albinder Dhindsa, CEO, Blinkit said they crossed the total number of orders they did on NYE 2022 in the evening only.
Similarly, people ordered two lakh kilos of onion and 1.80 lakh kilos of potato through Swiggy Instamart. Rohit Kapoor, CEO of Swiggy Food marketplace, noted a 10X increase in searches for tonic water, cocktail mixers, and glasses, indicating that India was celebrating like never before.
Zepto, India’s first unicorn of last year, said it saw a definitive surge in orders.
“We had the privilege of serving 2.1 million more customers on our platform compared to the same time last year. 1.88 million monthly transacting users (MTUs) in Dec 2022 versus 4.04 million MTUs in December 2023," said Aadit Palicha, co-founder and CEO of Zepto.
