{"id":3147,"date":"2025-05-30T15:18:30","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T09:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pinkpreneurs.in\/index.php\/2025\/05\/30\/zeptos-sustainability-in-question-as-suppliers-flag-payment-delays\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T15:18:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T09:48:30","slug":"zeptos-sustainability-in-question-as-suppliers-flag-payment-delays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pinkpreneurs.in\/index.php\/2025\/05\/30\/zeptos-sustainability-in-question-as-suppliers-flag-payment-delays\/","title":{"rendered":"Zepto\u2019s sustainability in question as suppliers flag payment delays"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There\u2019s a reason why vendors hesitate to trust startups, the intense media glaze notwithstanding. Started during the height of the work-from-home trend during the pandemic, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/helloentrepreneurs.com\/startups\/startup-stories\/__trashed-9-46435\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Zepto <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">had managed to silence critics with its 10 minute delivery service. Not to fall behind, food delivery and ecommerce majors including Zomato, Swiggy, JioMart and Flipkart also jumping into the fray.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the e-commerce boom, venture capitalists queued up to invest in a slice of the quick commerce hype, with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/helloentrepreneurs.com\/business\/zepto-raises-665m-pushing-valuation-to-3-6b-in-indias-thriving-delivery-market-41212\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Zepto\u2019s funding round <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">getting \u2018oversubscribed\u2019 just like IPOs do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Flush with funds, Zepto managed to corner about 29% of the quick commerce segment, as the convenience of getting groceries delivered started gaining popularity even in Tier II and III towns.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though Zepto has managed to expand the reach of FMCG products to an all-India level, its breakneck speed of expansion and slow response to delayed payments has increased customer complaints.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Reddit discussion has gone viral a few days ago, where a Reddior named CapitalEffective2939\u2019s post explained his views about Zepto\u2019s delayed payments and lack of accountability.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"reddit-embed-bq\" style=\"height: 316px;\" data-embed-height=\"316\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/StartUpIndia\/comments\/1kwimw4\/zepto_is_a_parasite_feeding_on_vendors_brands_and\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Zepto is a parasite feeding on vendors, brands, and staff \u2013 it\u2019s a ticking time bomb and no one\u2019s getting paid.<\/a><br \/>\nby<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/user\/CapitalEffective2939\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">u\/CapitalEffective2939<\/a> in<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/StartUpIndia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">StartUpIndia<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.reddit.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"UTF-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The post, with more than 1800 upvotes and 125 comments, explains the dark side of quick commerce and how its \u2018growth-at-any-cost\u2019 mindset can leave people high and dry. Even though the posts explains how Zepto has intentionally halted payments with vague responses and no accountability, they are forced to continue supplying to them due to the growth in numbers, as someone pointed out to the Redditor in question.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah, we can\u2019t just pull the plug on supplying them overnight .we\u2019re playing a numbers game here. The brand I supply is actually doing solid numbers pan-India on quick commerce and showing consistent MoM growth. Sure, the growth in my city isn\u2019t that impressive, but still , cutting off supplies now would tank the sales figures. That only opens the door for competing brands to scale while we sit on the sidelines.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the brand has explicitly told me not to hold supplies \u2013 they\u2019ve assured the dues will be cleared soon. If smaller vendors like me start playing hardball, it\u2019s not going to shake the system. It\u2019ll just give more shelf space to competitors. The only way holding supply makes an actual dent is if giants like HUL, Parle, or Nestl\u00e9 join the boycott. Otherwise, we\u2019re just burning our own bridges while the platform barely feels a scratch.\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This shows the dilemma small suppliers face when dealing with Zepto, even as other cash-burning quick commerce companies fulfill their payment responsibilities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Earlier,\u00a0 Zepto\u2019s 23-year-old co-founder Aadit Palicha posted a long <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/helloentrepreneurs.com\/business\/aadit-palicha-defends-startups-we-created-1-5-lakh-jobs-paid-%E2%82%B91000-cr-in-taxes-53809\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">response to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal\u2019s comments at the Startup Mahakumbh<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, where he complained about the lack of research depth in Indian startups. \u201c We can\u2019t be content churning out delivery boys and girls\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Will you consider a response to this Reddit threat Aadit? We\u2019re all eagerly awaiting your response.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&lt;p&gt;The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/helloentrepreneurs.com\/brand-saga\/zeptos-sustainability-in-question-as-suppliers-flag-payment-delays-56411\/\">Zepto\u2019s sustainability in question as suppliers flag payment delays<\/a> first appeared on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/helloentrepreneurs.com\/\">Hello Entrepreneurs<\/a>.&lt;\/p&gt;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s a reason why vendors hesitate to trust startups, the intense media glaze notwithstanding. Started during the height of the work-from-home trend during the pandemic, Zepto had managed to silence critics with its 10 minute delivery service. Not to fall behind, food delivery and ecommerce majors including Zomato, Swiggy, JioMart and Flipkart also jumping into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3148,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-3147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insight","tag-insight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinkpreneurs.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinkpreneurs.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinkpreneurs.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinkpreneurs.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinkpreneurs.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pinkpreneurs.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinkpreneurs.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinkpreneurs.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinkpreneurs.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinkpreneurs.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}