How To Build A Quick Commerce App Like Blinkit: Features, Cost, & Challenges

Gone are the days when we had to go to the local market, find the necessary items, stand in a long queue, and carry the purchased items on the way home. Quick commerce apps like Blinkit have transformed the way people purchase groceries.

Today, you can buy almost everything online with just one click and get it at your doorstep. This ability to shop online has dramatically changed customer behavior and opened up lots of opportunities for retailers.

With the advent of Q-commerce (quick commerce), online grocery shopping is progressing further, where app like Blinkit assures grocery delivery within 10 min or less. However, the delivery time can differ between 10 and 30 minutes based on your location. Today, consumers who were dependent on their neighborhood grocery stores have switched to quick commerce apps for grocery shopping.

Because of this, businesses in the grocery and food industry are focusing on creating an app like Blinkit to draw more and more customers from their doorsteps.

However, for business owners and retailers from non-technical backgrounds, mastering the knowledge of app development can be challenging. If you are from a non-technical background and looking to build an on-demand app, this guide will help you. Here, you will know everything about Blinkit, from its business model to how to make an app like Blinkit.

Quick Commerce Apps Like Blinkit: Market Overview & Growth

Blinkit is an India-based grocery delivery, quick commerce, or On-Demand app launched in 2013 that promises delivery of groceries to your doorstep within 10 to 30 minutes. Formerly known as Grofers, which used to deliver a range of products from groceries, baby care products, and bakery items online.

Blinkit started out as a small, hyper-local grocery delivery business and is now present in nearly 30 locations nationwide. In the next five years, the corporation intends to grow 100 times its current size.

How Blinkit’s On-Demand Grocery Delivery Business Model Works

Unlike the age-old traditional business models, the Blinkit business model makes use of technology. The company focuses on the marketplace model to connect consumers to the local brands and shop owners to deliver daily used goods to the doorsteps of the consumer.

Also, they store their products at their warehouse or dark stores to deliver essentials to your doorsteps within minutes. Users, inventories, and delivery partners are the three main components of the business model of Blinkit.

• Buyers (or Consumers)

Initially, the company provides a convenient option for customers who can’t or don’t want to go to the marketplace or retail stores to buy everyday products. This includes buyers of all backgrounds and ages, like senior citizens, working professionals, students, and people with disabilities or health issues.

• Local Sellers And The Inventory

Blinkit collaborates with local vendors, particularly the sellers who have little or no marketing available. The on-demand delivery service provides them with an opportunity to extend their reach and deliver items to the doorstep without any dedicated delivery staff. These suppliers pay Blinkit a commission in exchange for the work they do, which can be something between 8 and 15% of the product’s value.

However, in an effort to combat unreliable service from local vendors, Blinkit has decided to take control of storage and procurement. Because of this move, Blinkit delivers grocery products more consistently to its customers. Now, Blinkit obtains products from local businesses and brands, and keeps them in its dark stores.

• Delivery Team

The immediate delivery service divides regions into neighborhoods, with each having dedicated delivery agents and identified vendors. These delivery teams ensure that the partnered stores of Blinkit quickly deliver groceries or everyday items to customers.

What Are The Benefits of Building Blinkit Clone App?

In the past few years, the online grocery app development service market has shown remarkable growth, and the future seems bright for the market. Cloning can benefit more for less money. The following are some of the reasons to create an on-demand delivery app similar to Blinkit.

• Time & Cost Effective:

You can save costs of operating a store in customer service and checkout. With a delivery app, you can reach more consumers without hiring more people or adding more room. By allowing your customers to purchase whenever they want to, you can extend demand over the course of the day. This will help you handle your products more conveniently and ease the stress of peak hours.

• Better Inventory Control

With the help of the delivery app, you can monitor your inventory levels in real time using apps, you can automate reordering, and manage expiration dates to reduce waste. Inventory management becomes easier with multi-store management, barcode scanners, and inventory reports. This helps you make more money.

• Increase Customer Reach

By making the shopping process simpler, more convenient, and easier to access, the growth of instant grocery delivery apps can attract a greater number of customers. People can access the delivery app in multiple ways, like via in-app alerts, emails, SMS, and others.

With online delivery apps, stakeholders can build long-term relationships with customers, gain their trust, and get a wider regional reach, along with other benefits.

• Personalization

A delivery app can serve consumers based on their past shopping habits and preferences when it comes to items they purchase, deals, discounts, and others.

• Competitive Benefits

With an instant delivery app such as Blinkit, you can provide a personalized experience to your customers, respond rapidly to changes in the market, and track your goods efficiently.

What Are The Features of Grocery Delivery Apps Like Blinkit?

When it comes to the features of a grocery delivery app like Blinkit, many features come to mind, like registration and login, quick delivery, plenty of products, and real-time tracking. Let’s understand these features:

• Registration And Login

A quick commerce app similar to Blinkit doesn’t use technical phrases or jargon and provides a seamless registration and quick registration process. Because of this, customers find the app quite simple and join it. In order to get more participation in your app, it is important to provide a simple registration process to the customers.

• User-Friendly Interface

A clean and intuitive user interface, clearly laid out product details, and rapid response to customer service queries help attract more customers.

• Payment Flexibility

Blinkit provides its users with multiple payment options like debit/credit cards, Paytm Food Wallet, COD, wallets, and UPI. By adding such a feature, you can ensure that your customers get access to different payment options for a smooth shopping experience.

• Order Management

The order management system works like the brain of the on-demand delivery apps. It keeps a record of all the placed orders, monitors the progress, and assigns drivers. Hence, considering adding it to your instant delivery app can benefit you.

• Quick Delivery

With the assurance to deliver all the products your customers have ordered within 10-30 minutes of placing their order, you can gain their trust and maintain a long-term relationship with them. Because of the quick delivery service, customers don’t have to wait long.

• Blinkit Business Model

The company works on a hyperlocal marketplace model and partners with stores to deliver products within minutes. By incorporating this business model of Blinkit in your app, you can support prompter services along with local producers.

• Different Product Range

It is estimated that Blinkit offers over 10,000 goods and services across a wide range of categories, including electronics, groceries, vegetables and fruits, beauty, and medicine. This helps in extending your business reach to a wide range of customers.

• Real-Time Tracking

The Blinkit App consists of live tracking for each order, to keep their customers informed about the status of their delivery in real-time. As a result, the process becomes more trustworthy and transparent.

• Subscription Service

Customers who have a Blinkit Gold subscription are eligible for free delivery, exclusive discounts, and priority services. By including such services in your quick commerce delivery app, you can help your consumers save money and win their trust.

• Push Notifications

Push notifications help customers stay updated in real-time, as they get a notification if there is any delay in the delivery of their order. This covers promotions, orders, and special deals or discounts.

• Location-Based Tracking

Location-based tracking allows customers to see nearby delivery drivers in real time and monitor their routes. This feature enhances transparency, builds trust, and keeps users updated as their order gets closer to their doorstep.

• Order Cancellation

Blinkit gives customers the option to cancel their order at no extra charge while it’s still in the packing stage. This flexible and user-friendly policy builds trust and improves overall customer satisfaction with the service.

Technology Stack Required For Developing An App Like Blinkit

In order to develop a Blinkit clone app, having knowledge of a technological stack including programming languages, server-side frameworks, databases, and client-side frameworks is crucial. The technology used for creating a quick commerce app is as follows:

1. Database: Couchbase, MongoDB, Cassandra, MySQL 
2. Programming Languages: Java (required for Android Apps) or Swift (essential for iOS apps)
3. Backend Development: Node.js
4. Frontend Development: React.js
5. Payment Gateway: PayPal or Stripe 
6. Maps And Navigation: Apple Maps or Google Maps
7. Search Engine: Elasticsearch 
8. Cloud Provider: Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft
9. Machine Learning: MXNet, TensorFlow, and Scikit-learn

How to Develop an App Like Blinkit: Steps and Guide

The sector of app-based grocery deliveries has shown remarkable growth in the last few years. Applications like Blinkit have created a sense of standard in the industry owing to the fact that they are highly efficient and interface-friendly. Hence, if you are planning to create an app similar to Blinkit, you must follow these steps:

• Understand Your Niche & Target Market

Understanding of your specific niche and its relevant market is important before jumping into the development process. The quick and simple delivery of everyday necessities and groceries is where Blinkit shines.

However, you can think of expanding categories like meal hampers, pharmaceuticals, or eco-products. Your target audience and their needs will determine the layout and functionality of your app.

• Determine Key Features & Functionalities

Today, businesses are creating apps to compete for space with quick commerce delivery service providers. There are some key features that the app must have. The functionalities include user registration and profiles, product search and categories, real-time order tracking, payment flexibility, and push notifications.

• Select the Right Technology Stack

When developing a Blinkit clone app, you must select the right technology stack so that your app meets the key requirements of scalability, performance, and satisfaction.

1. Backend Development: The I/O-bound, non-preemptive characteristic of Node.js makes it a good option to manage an array of high-frequency operations. Whereas Shopify or Laravel on Rails provides a robust framework for rapid development and safety.
2. Frontend Development: React.js is a widely used front-end development library available in JavaScript. It is popular for its component-based structure that permits developing reusable elements of the UI.
3. Vue.js: Another JavaScript framework best for creating a rather flexible interface of a window.
4. Database Management: To deal with complicated queries and relational data, you must select PostgreSQL. However, for more free-form, schema-less data, it is best to opt for MongoDB. Both databases are great options for managing modern, stylish data and scalability.
5. Cloud Services: Google Cloud or AWS let you have all the essential large-scale hosting services and infrastructure. The services they offer are data storage, processing capacity, and safety for the growing traffic.
6. Real-Time Communication: For real-time notifications, you must use technologies such as Firebase or WebSockets so that the users obtain information in real-time about their orders and deliveries.

• Build An Intuitive User Interface

Functionality plays an important role in on-demand apps such as Blinkit, which revolves around the experience of its users. Make your app as simple as possible for the customers so that they can find their way around your app.

Focus on features like responsive layouts, clean design, and seamless navigation, as they directly influence user satisfaction. The more aesthetically compelling and integrated your design the services, the more it will be for customers to search, place, and track their orders.

• Create A Scalable Backend Infrastructure

To administer the user data and order processing with the help of real-time updates, top-notch support is a necessity. You must select an app development that is functional and capable of growing with increasing traffic and hosting massive data.

You can include advanced functionalities like machine learning and AI to determine future traffic, delivery routes, and individual profiles.

• Consider Safety And Data Protection

When it comes to the sensitive data of users and their money, safety is paramount. To protect user data, you can include industry-standard encryption measures and a top-quality payment system. To fulfill the needs of the changing data protection laws, ensure that your app is equipped with necessary fixes for vulnerabilities.

• Test & Launch the app

When practicing to prepare for the launch of your app, make sure to debug the program that might impact the performance of your project. Do usability testing to obtain feedback of the customers and make the required changes. Once you develop your app, you must upload it to the app stores and use marketing strategies to advertise your app.

• Track App Performance & Collect Feedback

After launching the app, you must monitor and analyze its performance and supervise the customer reception to inform them about upgrades. You can use the data and maintain records on the different performance indicators. This will help you address the issues in time and provide a seamless experience to users.

How Much Does It Cost To Make An App Like Blinkit?

The cost of developing a Blinkit clone app can vary based on different factors like app features, development team, platform (Android/iOS), and post-development support and maintenance services. If you need a basic app, the cost will be less, whereas for advanced apps, you must pay more. Let’s understand it in detail.

1. Basic Version: The estimated cost of developing a basic version app usually averages between $15,000 to $25,000 might be required for. In this version, you will get all the essential features and functionalities.
2. Advanced Version: To create an advanced version app, you might need to pay approximately $50,000 to $100,000. This version consists of advanced functionalities like route optimization, AI integration, and a loyalty program.

Also Read: How Much Grocery App Development Cost

Key Development Challenges in Building Blinkit-Like Apps

Developing an on-demand delivery app such as Blinkit is a multifaceted endeavor that has a number of obstacles, like real-time data processing, scalability and performance, safety concerns, and user engagement and retention. Here is a detailed look at the obstacles:

• Scalability & Performance

When an app grows and reaches a point where thousands and millions of people are using it, monitoring its performance becomes essential to ensure that it works optimally. If your app is not scalable, you might end up facing slow load times or crashes, which might result in losing your customers. 

For efficient user growth, using flexible scaling of cloud services and a microservices architecture can work. Also, you must perform performance tests and optimize. 

• Real-Time Data Processing

Quick commerce apps majorly depend on real-time data for features like tracking and updates. Processing this data accurately and quickly is essential for customer satisfaction. 

By incorporating modern data processing libraries and solid backend infrastructure, you can manage real-time data. Other methods, like adding caching strategies and optimizing database issues, can also help. 

• Safety Measures

Sensitive customer data, like payment details, must be managed in a safe environment to make sure that no one can breach or build trust with the customers. 

Secure payment gateways, industry-standard encryption, and data safety regulations can be beneficial.

• User Engagement & Retention

In today’s competitive marketplace, it gets difficult to keep customers interested and get them to use the app again. The profitability and growth of apps can be impacted by high churn rates. 

User engagement can be boosted by adding personalized inclusions like regular updates and loyalty programs. You can add features that address user needs by analysing user behaviour and feedback.

• Market Saturation & Competition

The quick commerce app market is competitive, and it is hard for new business owners to enter the market. An app can shine in the crowd only by conducting comprehensive market research to know the value propositions and the market.

Final Words

Quick commerce apps like Blinkit have completely changed how people shop for groceries. With fast delivery and easy access, these apps offer more comfort and convenience than ever before. For businesses, this shift creates a great chance to reach more customers and grow.

Building a similar app may seem tough, especially for those without tech knowledge, but the process becomes manageable with the right steps. From planning features and choosing a tech stack to design and testing, every stage matters. With careful planning, strong backend support, and a user-friendly interface, you can successfully launch your grocery delivery app.

How Can Appventurez Help You In Developing An App Like Blinkit?

Appventurez is a renowned and trusted app development company. If you’re planning to build an app like Blinkit, our team can guide you from concept to launch. We specialize in custom on-demand delivery apps with real-time tracking, payment integration, inventory management, and smooth UX.

We designed the app based on your business goals. Our designers ensure a smooth user journey, while developers build reliable and fast-performing apps. From strategy and UI/UX design to deployment and post-launch support, Appventurez covers the full app development cycle. With us, you don’t just get a product, you get a long-term tech partner focused on your success. Let us turn your Blinkit-style app idea into a fully functional platform.