Dhanteras, or Dhanatrayodashi, marks the first day of the Diwali festival across several parts of India. It is considered auspicious to buy items made of gold, silver or brass on this day, as such purchases are believed to bring prosperity and success. This year, Dhanteras is being celebrated on October 29.
“Dhanteras special: get authentic gold & silver coins delivered in 10 minutes from Blinkit,” chief executive Albinder Dhindsa wrote in a post on microblogging platform X.
“We’re seeing incredible demand for gold and silver coins, with Delhi-NCR leading the way, and Mumbai and Bangalore neck-and-neck,” said Aadit Palicha, cofounder of Zepto, while highlighting that the Mumbai-based startup is seeing a 6x growth in gold coin sales as compared to last year.
In addition to the rising sales of coins, there has been a significant increase in the purchase of brooms.“It’s just 12:25 PM and we’ve already delivered way more jhaadus than we do on a regular Tuesday,” Dhindsa wrote in his post with a graph showing the increase in sales of brooms as compared to last Tuesday.
These platforms have created a special section on the app for Dhanteras featuring items such as diyas, puja essentials, decoration items, gifts, chocolates, lights, sweets and dry fruits, among others.
Discover the stories of your interest
“Gold and silver coins, along with pooja items, diyas, and other auspicious products, are expected to stay in high demand from Dhanteras through Bhai Duj, enabling our customers to find everything they need to celebrate meaningfully on Instamart,” said a Swiggy spokesperson.Tata-owned BigBasket has also partnered with jewellery brand Tanishq to offer gold and silver coins. “With BigBasket’s quick commerce model, customers across multiple cities in India can celebrate Dhanteras with ease, ensuring their purchases are timely and seamless,” the platform said.
Quick-commerce platforms are also seeing a surge in Diwali gift orders as these platforms have rolled out features like equated monthly instalments, post-paid options, 10-minute returns for clothing and footwear, besides expanding their inventory with popular festival-related products.
On September 19, ET reported that quick commerce may account for $1 billion of ecommerce sales in terms of gross merchandise value (GMV) during the festive period. GMV is the total value of goods sold on ecommerce platforms, excluding discounts and returns.