Zepto & BlinkIt — Experience matters

Hyperlocal Grocery delivery, sure there is a big discussion on this topic, but I think everybody loves fast delivery!

This article is about the two most famous grocery delivery apps in India. Both of them provide the same service fundamentally, the mission: pack groceries within a few minutes at so-called dark stores, or small warehouses in densely populated neighborhood buildings, and send bike riders to nearby locations with about seven minutes to spare. Both companies compete on offers, faster delivery, and on who burns more money to acquire customers.

Do note that BlinkIt(Grofers) has been in this business of food delivery for a very long time and can try to develop more horizontal/vertical business opportunities whereas Zepto is new to the game. But nevertheless, we’ll only be looking at the delivery sides of both of these apps/businesses. And, about the user experience design in them.

Good design is invisible.

Invisible design is the design that works. When it goes unnoticed, it means “no complaints.” A phone that is designed to help you better communicate helps you complete a task without problems, making your life easier.

Don’t you have a sense of belonging when you’re using particular apps? Isn’t it like everything is perfectly in place? Colors, fonts, or text sizes? There is a variety of causes behind this. But, with certain apps, we all get that feeling.

To clear my point, I would prefer Whatsapp over Facebook Messenger for chatting, it’s just that Whatsapp somehow feels natural to texting. You are free to disagree because you might feel differently, but we all naturally feel inclined towards some apps.

This natural inclination can’t be put into words, it is a result of the good design is aimed at you and like-minded people. The success of an app can simply be measured by the number of users and how many people find it easy to use.

Zepto and BlinkIt barely have any differentiation in terms of their business models. They operate primarily through their apps. Before we dive deep, do you inherently feel inclined towards one of these apps from a design/user-experience perspective? I do. I prefer Zepto. And, let me show you all the reasons why.

The First Screen

Left – BlinkIt | Right – Zepto

On the left we can see Zepto, you can see how well organized the app is. Dark Purple color, simple top banner, all following the theme of Purple. The pictures are detailed, the trending near you feature prompts the user to buy. The information about delivery time changes with the day/time but it only shows on one banner, it does not have a permanent space on the Screen.

On the right, we see how simple the design of BlinkIt is. Although the categories option is a bit loaded with content, BlinkIt is able to offer 20 different categories versus 15 for Zepto.

Let’s do a differences breakdown:

• Font Sizes: They clearly seem to have similar font sizes with some differences in BlinkIt, BlinkIt has great Data organisation and with font sizes, it makes the data readable and organised.
• Colors: The yellow theme on BlinkIt looks wonderful but the theme does not flow with the rest of the page somehow, we see green, red, blue but it does not try to match the theme of yellow. Zepto on the other side is able to flow with the content, we are able to see theme reflect on the font colors, the banner and even the discount offer tag. Both of them have a used Green in order to show discounts.
• Amount of Content: BlinkIt has more hierarchy and order to it, Firstly, they talk about the delivery time(which does not change as the banner moves around), then the categories, with a button to lead to a page full of categories, this is different from Zepto but we also have another Tab in the BlinkIt app totally dedicated to categories, so the first tab can provide more content.
• Search Field: both of them have a similar style of Search bar, BlinkIt has tried going with normal grocery placeholder, it makes the design look better, also BlinkIt has a full Search Tab on the app dedicated to it.
• Priority: People come to Zepto/BlinkIt for offers and both provide information on the main page itself, Zepto has gone with small addition to the bottom part of the App, whereas BlinkIt covers a major part of the screen in the top part itself, letting the user know about the offerings. Both might have the same offerings, Zepto ensures that part on the bottom grabs your attention using colors.

In Summary, I feel that BlinkIt is more guiding in design. There’s hierarchy of data and better management of content.

Next, scrolling a bit lower- The rest of the Page

Left – BlinkIt | Right – Zepto

To my surprise, BlinkIt had a pretty long main page, although they were able to utilize banners twice and even promote different brands through this, the user is bombarded with dense collection of items(very less white space) till he reaches the end, Zepto is providing information to its users but it’s less crowded and more towards its main purple theme.

Categories Section:

Left – BlinkIt | Right – Zepto

I’m a bit conflicted here, Zepto provide you with Sub categories and grocery items in a much more dense manner while BlinkIt gives you more room for grocery listings. In BlinkIt we see a lot of white spaces allocated per listing, this form of listing was way better when used in Zomato/Swiggy, because we have a lot of information to provide to its users.

I personally prefer Zepto here, because I would like to check more stuff out in a shorter span of time rather than go one by one slowly. Also it allows for more impulsive buying decisions.

Let’s do a design breakdown between these two screens:

• Offers: Both of them provide information on the listing but Zepto due to its dense listing provides more data points on the same screen. We also have space on top of the listings section in Zepto, this helps to provide additional information in the page, whereas BlinkIt doesn’t have any additional space for providing information. A major distinguishing factor is the constant discount offering on the bottom of the screen.
• Data Organization: Both of them are able to provide important data all grouped together, Zepto is able to do it in more concise manner. The important data points generally are Price, Discounts % and the Weight of the product. The additional sorting on the left providing us with all the subcategories, whereas in BlinkIt, you have to scroll through the horizontal tabs.
• White Space: White Space is not wasted space. It gives more room for content to breathe and people to focus on important elements. Colors also stand out more. BlinkIt is using this extensively, providing similar data as Zepto is able to provide but take up more space

Zepto manages to pack more data in the same space. It seems crowded, but in the space of Grocery delivery, 70% of the time, you ignore the brand of the grocery(other than your regular), also has space for more spontaneous buys, I’d say it’s much better then the overkill of space usage in the BlinkIt app.

Cart Page:

Left – BlinkIt | Right – Zepto

This is probably the most important screen after the grocery has been added to the cart. My review for these screens is pretty much smiliar to the above screen.

More White space, data organization weirdness- BlinkIt. Good use of White space, font are smaller in size, but it is able to convey to its users 3 important things very easily which is lacking in BlinkIt.

1. Discount savings/Total Savings: This being highlighted on the screen provides a sense of savings, this is not present in BlinkIt
2. Delivery Time: Although both of them do a wonderful job to specify the delivery time, Zepto provides a bit of personalization with the matching purple theme.
3. Offers/Coupons: A small detail about Zepto is the fact that it was dynamically conveying us whether the offer is valid or not as you add items on the bottom of the screen, this saves the user time if he/she keeps forgetting about the coupon and has to return to the main page to add something to get that coupon. The main difference in Zepto is the ability to add coupons on this page itself, whereas you cannot add coupons on BlinkIt without going to the payment page.

Concluding Notes:

I’m very intrigued by BlinkIt’s Design decisions with their app design. Zepto did get late into the grocery delivery space but the app seems better designed.

An app might not have the perfect UI, but if it’s more easier to navigate and explore is definitely a plus. Especially, for a company/service that’s dependent on people clicking the Add/Buy button.